VISION The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia is a cutting edge education and research centre dedicated to the

development of an architecture capable of meeting the worldwide challenges in the construction of habitability in the early 21st century. Based in the 22@ district of Barcelona, one of the worlds capitals of architecture and urbanism, IAAC is a platform for the exchange of knowledge with faculty and students from over 25 countries, including USA, China. India, Poland, Italy, Mexico and Sudan. Students work simultaneously on multiple scales (city, building, manufacturing) and in different areas of expertise (ecology, energy, digital manufacturing, new technologies), pursuing their own lines of enquiry on the way to developing an integrated set of skills with which to act effectively in their home country or globally. IAAC has carried out research projects in Brazil, Taiwan, Croatia and Romania. In 2008 it was chosen to take part in the official section of the Venice Biennale with the project Hyperhabitat and in 2010 it presented a 1:1 scale house (entirely produced at IAAC) at the Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid where it won the Peoples Choice Award. IAAC has the most advanced digital production laboratory of any educational institution in southern Europe, with laser cutters, 3D printers, milling machines and a platform for manufacturing chips. IAAC organizes the Masters course in Advanced Architecture (1 year and 2 year course) in conjunction with the UPC Polytechnic University. The educational programs also include the Open Thesis Fabrication course that is open to Masters architecture students from around the world and the Master in Advanced Interactions oriented to programers and designers. Also, the Fab Academy is part of the global network of Fab Labs affiliated to MITs Center for Bit and Atoms. Since 2004 the IAAC has run the Advanced Architecture Contest (Self-Sufficient City, Self-Sufficient Housing and Self-Fab House). This year IAAC and HP presented the 4th Advanced Architecture Contest: CITY-SENSE: Shaping our environment with real-time data. City Sense promotes discussion and research that help us envisage what the city and the habitat of the 21st century will be like. OBJECTIVES IAACs activities find their roots in the following objectives: 1. To stimulate, promote and develop research on the diverse areas of advanced architecture, increasing the potential of information gathering teams in architecture and its interaction with other disciplines. 2. To teach, develop, promote and diffuse the knowledge and training of technical and scientific staff in architecture and its interaction with other disciplines.

3. To act as a consultant to public authorities and public or private organizations on questions of architecture and its interaction with other disciplines. 4. To establish scientific and academic collaborative ventures with universities and major national and international information-gathering centres specializing in architecture and related disciplines (such as informational technology and sustainable development, among others). 5. To establish appropriate collaborative ventures with local, regional and national government bodies and the private sector in terms of their own core activities. 6. To facilitate closer contact between basic and applied research, acting as a centre of technology transfer when appropriate. 7. To organize scientific encounters and national and international forums. 8. To organize exhibitions and promote publications on a local, national and international level.

Developing Innovative Solutions to Environmental Challenges, CASE is a Collaboration of SOM & Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Located at SOMs offices on Wall Street in lower Manhattan, the Center for Architecture, Science & Ecology (CASE) is an innovative collaboration between SOM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that engages scientists, engineers, and architects from the professional and academic worlds toward a common goal of redefining how we build sustainable cities and environments. The idea is to tap and cultivate the talents of a new generation of architects, thinkers, and planners and turn out sustainable and energy-efficient solutions to todays environmental challenges in the global building sector, which accounts for more than one third of energy consumption and nearly 40 percent of carbon production. Framed around Rensselaer School of Architectures advanced degree program in Built Ecologies, CASE is focused on the development of new building strategies with an emphasis on energy-efficiency and sustainability. Approximately 20 masters and doctoral degree candidates share residency between the Rensselaer campus and the CASE offices, working alongside building professionals and post-doctoral researchers as they develop projects and thesis topics tied to specific building challenges. Rensselaer, founded in 1824, is the nations oldest technological university. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development. Tackling the global challenges of sustainability and energy security requires a commitment to innovation, to inquiry, and to cross-disciplinary collaboration, said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. Through the development of innovative systems and materials that will shift building performance toward sustainable and energy self-sufficient models, researchers at the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology will demonstrate to the world the power that lies at the nexus of art, design, science, and technology. Two leaders with long histories of innovation in their fields Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill will work together to create ecologically sustainable design through cutting-edge technological experimentation and architectural work. The most meaningful performative design innovations will be achieved by collaboration between the leaders in academic research and transdisciplinary professional practice. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and SOM have come together to create the environment which will advance building science to the forefront of creative endeavors. CASE researchers are developing innovative solutions to environmental challenges, including a new way to harness wind power atop aerodynamically shaped buildings,

which could yield 150 percent greater efficiency than existing wind power systems; a new solar technology for windows that tracks the position of the sun and converts its light and diverted heat into storable energy that can be used for heating, cooling, and lighting buildings; and an architectural method to aid in the conservation of potable and non-potable water in hot and arid regions where rainfall is scarce. As new construction projects increase in emerging global economies, acceleration in the pace of innovation and implementation of radically new sustainable technologies becomes ever more urgent, says Anna Dyson, Director of CASE and of the Built Ecologies graduate program administered by the School of Architecture at Rensselaer. The Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology will provide an environment for collaboration that supports accelerated innovation and the incorporation of nextgeneration architectural technologies into new building projects. Systems research at CASE is currently supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR).

Mission: A new academic-industrial alliance is required to accelerate a more aggressively experimental process that leads to development of new systems that produce a paradigm shift in the way that our future cities metabolize energy, water, and resources.

The Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE) is addressing the need for accelerated innovation of radically new sustainable built environments through the development of next-generation building systems. A multi-institutional and professional office research collaboration co-hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, CASE is pushing the boundaries of environmental performance in urban building systems on a global scale, through actual building projects as research test beds