RS.2 – Research Studio
SELF SUFFICIENT BUILDINGS

Senior Faculty: Enric Ruiz Geli, Mireia Luzárraga

AN ARCHITECTURE OF SCIENCE + FICTION SYSTEMS
Architecture causes 40% of the CO2 emissions, so it is in a great part responcible of the consequences of the scenarios that the Antropocene is setting. Our role as architects is to become activists and perform with a full Green agenda. In order to build this Green Agenda we propose the students to start from scratch, to reset, and get isolated from today’s scenario (brexit, no peace in Colombia, President Trump, crisis in Greece, Spain corruption…)
And thus start from what we will call YEAR ZERO, by getting unplugged in order to create, and build a complete offgrid environment. We think this exercise is essential for reaching our target of becoming self sufficient, not only in terms of energy, but also in terms of economy, social life, etc. A white page is necessary to build a new generation, a new sensibility.
Our two starting point models will be Media-ICT and IAAC, that we consider two good examples of Factories of Knowledge transfer, Green Education, Digital Fabrication, where architecture becomes a hub of knowledge.
The final target of the students will be to design a building in Barcelona: design a building which is a SYSTEM, design a building net zero, design a building using SCIENCE, the science of particles, design a building using FICTION, creating fictions in order to make everything more understandable, more educational. Among the whole tribe we will build a big mock up model of our building where we will test our sollutions and do our final presentations.
The building program will be an educational building. We must design a building where EDUCATION IS AN EXPERIENCE, where education is first.

MAA Self Sufficient Building Studio, FarmASeed // Joel Kahn, Ann Vu, James Mitchell

RESEARCH TRIP
At the research trip we will visit some examples of relevant places where education happens, not only Academical Buildings, but also living laboratories, sharing knowledge hubs… that will inspire us on our Education agenda.
The trip organisation will be roughly this one:
1st – 2nd april. CCA Montreal. Centre Canadien of Architecture
3rd – 4th april. MIT Boston.
5th – 6th april. Watermill Center Foundation
7th – 8th april. Virginia tech
9th – 10th april. Marfa Donald Judd Foundation.

MAA Self Sufficient Building Studio, THE GRID // Borislav Schalev, Dennis Li, Alejandro Carrillo

KICK OFF WORKSHOP
At the kick off workshop we will get immersed in the agenda of the Studio by discussing and visiting some examples of architecture and nature. The students will be given some basic bibliography that is aligned with the studio and they must start getting involved with it.
We will be visiting:
– Media-itc building in Barcelona
– Aiguablava Mediterranean case study house
– elBulli foundation.

MAA Self Sufficient Building Studio, THE FLOOD // Jeng Rung