WHAT IS BIAW 2011?
BIAW 2011 is a week-long workshop fashioned after a similar experience that took place in 2010 in Milan, MIAW 2010. It is devoted to experimental design and aims at the creation of a European network of schools dealing with contemporary subjects.
It consists of five groups of 10-14 students, each of them led by a foreign guest professor invited and assisted by a local professor. Each guest professor proposes and tutors an urban or architectural exercise dealing with a key-word common across all groups.
WHAT WILL IT BE ABOUT?
The key-word for BIAW 2011 is SCARCITY. The goal of the seminar is to open up as many relevant meanings as possible of SCARCITY, all dealing with its positive implications for architecture, society and the city. Scarcity as a design tool.
WHEN WILL IT TAKE PLACE?
BIAW 2011 will take place from Monday 5th September through Friday 9th, ending with the presentation of the works and the opening of an exhibition on Saturday 10th.
WHERE WILL IT TAKE PLACE?
BIAW 2011 will be held at ESCOLA D'ARQUITECTURA DEL VALLÈS-UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE CATALUNYA, in its Sant Cugat Campus (etsav.upc.edu).
WHO WILL THE GUEST PROFESSORS BE?
The guest professors leading the seminars at BIAW 2011 are:
andrea gritti (www.grittiarchitetti.it) + enric massip-bosch
andrea gritti (www.grittiarchitetti.it) + enric massip-bosch
david kohn (www.davidkohn.co.uk) + sergi serrat
jan liesegang (www.raumlabor.net) + tomeu ramis
carlos pedro sant'ana (www.sa-arquitectos.com) + xavier vancells
markus vogl (www.querkraft.at) + mariona benedito
jan liesegang (www.raumlabor.net) + tomeu ramis
carlos pedro sant'ana (www.sa-arquitectos.com) + xavier vancells
markus vogl (www.querkraft.at) + mariona benedito
WHO CAN APPLY?
All UPC architecture students in their fourth or fifth year are welcome to apply for a place in one of the groups. Erasmus students willing to join ETSAV are specially recommended to apply as a fast-track to get to know the school, its rhythms and the local students. Registration is also open to other students or young architects willing to work hard and have fun.
BIAW 2011 application is open through August 15th. In order to apply, send an email to biaw2011etsav@gmail.com and we'll send you a form to be completed. Since places are limited, we advise to include a 2-A4 pdf with your short cv.
BIAW 2011 is organized by DEPARTAMENT DE PROJECTES ARQUITECTÒNICS-UPC. Enrolment in BIAW 2011 is considered part of the academic curriculum and valued in 4 credits only for those students registered at ETSAV . Other participants will get an acknowledgement. Cost of the course for ETSAV-registered students is the standard fee for 4 credits, payable at the school administration. Cost for non-ETSAV students is 40 EUR payable to Carlos Corominola at SECCIÓ DEL DEPARTAMENT DE PROJECTES ARQUITECTÒNICS, ETSAV 4th Floor, Pere Serra 1-15, E 08190 Sant Cugat del Vallès. Please check with him at +34 934017890.
ABOUT SCARCITY
Scarcity is arguably the most relevant single concept informing the new global paradigm for the XXIst century. It is obviously not a new condition. In fact we could say that it has constituted the basis or the frame within which all human development has taken place. Until recently, when the combination of technical prowess and cheap energy has broken this continuity and has consecrated abundance as a generalized norm among many societies.
Abundance is not universal, though. And it is surely an illusion based on borrowed capital resources that future generations will have to pay back, limiting their scope of decisions. New awareness of this double inequality has prompted in the industrialized world a reconsideration of abundance and its consequences. After the party, scarcity is back.
For the first time in history, though, we see scarcity as an opportunity rather than a limitation. Scarcity is the mother of all economies and the source of all significant inventions. For the first time as well, a new paradigm will place the first and the third world on the same level, playing by the same rules of contention and austerity. As architects, how can we harness the enormous potential that this new situation discloses? What will it mean in terms of design principles? Is it possible to generate richness and sensuality within the framework of scarcity?
Find more questions and some answers at BIAW2011!
