Theory & Knowledge
Senior Faculty: Manuel Gausa
Faculty: Jordi Vivaldi

BitMap Printing, Neri Oxman

The last few decades have confirmed the evidence of a spectacular change of paradigms in the definition of our spaces of relation, interaction and sociability. These transformations have to do with the current and accelerated growth of the technological capacity to process information, increase communication and multiply the differential definitions of our environment(s).

This change of paradigms is associated to a new Advanced Knowledge whose theoretical frameworks will be investigated in the IAAC-TAK (Theory & Advanced Knowledge // Advanced Thinking and Theory Studies). Investigation comes from the Latin investigare, which derives of vestigium, which means fingerprint. On the one hand, to investigate is equivalent to “go in pursuit of the fingerprint of something”, that is to say, “to go after the track of something” in order to discover it. On the other hand, to research means also to explore an uncertain epistemological domain in order to increase the field of knowledge on a certain matter.

This seminar will be based on a multidisciplinary approach to different key notions that are crucial in order to understand what Advanced Architecture represents from a theoretical point of view. Taking as a base a critical approach to key-words such as “matter”, “aesthetics”, “city”, “nature”, the seminar will construct a cross-linked thinking related with the complex processing of information and its evolutionary and dynamic projection.

The course will be delivered in lectures, workshops and critical discussions. The target consists in constructing a critical approach towards Advanced Architecture that on the one hand is deeply specific, and on the other hand provides a multidisciplinary approach. Each student will produce a reflection of one particular aspect of their project in the format of an academic paper. At the end of the term, the paper will be presented through a final open presentation.