This edited volume centers around the concept of BioCities, which aim to unify nature and urban spaces in order to reverse the effects of global climate change and inequity. Following this principle, the authors propose multiple approaches for sustainable city growth. The discussed concepts are not only relevant for newly constructed cities, but offer transformative perspectives for existing settlements as well. Placing nature at the forefront of city planning is not an entirely new concept, so the authors build on established ideas like the garden city, green city, eco-city, or smart city. All chapters aim to highlight aspects to develop a city that is a resilient nature-based socio-ecological system. Many of these concepts were formed in an effort to copy the best traits of a forest ecosystem: a home for many different species that build complex communities. Much like many of our forests, urban areas are managed by humans for multifunctional purposes, using living and abiotic components. This viewpoint helps to understand the potential and limitations of sustainable growth. With these chapters, the authors want to inspire planners, ecologists, urban foresters and decision makers of the future.

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia investigates global projects for sustainable development on the cutting edge of self-sufficient housing, addressing environmental, economic and social needs. The projects investigate construction techniques and processes to build houses with local means, from the intelligent application of traditional techniques to advanced digital processes and fabrication.This book is a fascinating compilation of the most innovative projects for single dwellings and residential buildings, proposing the most creative designs and construction through the use of new materials and energy systems, and the integration of architecture into the landscape.

Based in Barcelona, the IAAC is an international centre of architectural research in territorial analysis, urban development, digital fabrications and informational environments for improving cultural, economic and social conditions.

Josep Llus Mateo is one of Spain's most influential architects in architecture today. This book brings together his recent projects, his influences, his references together with material from interviews and a wealth of images. It is, in a nutshell, his work philosophy. Conversations, reflections and projects completed in the last five years are presented as realities and actions, interpreted through this concept, which can be contemplated as infinity of individual forms of contacting with reality and acting upon it. For Josep Llus Mateo, the crux of this work is to analyze, from the perspective of his unique work, the state of issues and situations today in architecture and to interact accordingly with exterior space.

Vicente Guallart, pioneer of new media, examines the technological, social and cultural changes in our information society for new urban building. Presenting the last 15 years of his work, this book investigates architecture's ability to construct systems for inhabitable environments in diverse environmental, social, and economic conditions. His collaborations with specialists in geology, anthropology, sociology, engineering, economics, software and interface design have blurred traditional boundaries. The projects follow a 'natural' logic, referring to components originating in nature, as well as to environmental systems. This title presents a logic that connects nature with the transformations of urban spaces, social organizations, and the digital world.

Material Intelligence, simulations, sensors, actuators, as well as the bio-mimetic and digital manufacturing innovations provide revolutionary ideas on growth, adaptability, repair, sensitivity, replication and energy savings in architecture. Should we continue constructing rigid and fixed structures? Or can our habitats begin to think?

A lo largo de estas paginas y bajo el formato de un diccionario selectivo de terminos queremos identificar una nueva voluntad arquitectonica. Una voluntad basada en un cambio profundo de miradas, criterios, instrumentos, conceptos y actitudes que une hoy, entre si, inquietudes compartidas y objetivos comunes producidos mas alla del contexto, en diversos espacios culturales. Quiere abordar sin remoras ni complejos, sin predeterminaciones ni formulas establecidas, con desinhibicion, pero tambien con energia y precision, aquellas parcelas clave que definen la propia realidad contemporanea. En este sentido, se ha decidido definir aquellos terminos susceptibles de reflejar el ambito, las caracteristicas y las repercusiones de dicha arquitectura avanzada en base a un diccionario selectivo: una arquitectura inscrita en la sociedad de la informacion e influida por las nuevas tecnologias, la nueva economia, la atencion por el medio ambiente, el interes hacia el individuo... La pluralidad de los autores y de las aportaciones especiales debe considerarse como una decision inicial destinada a favorecer el cruce y la complicidad de visiones y apuestas en esta direccion.

Description: The Media House Project is the result of a strategic alliance between the Metapolis Group from Barcelona, the MIT Media Lab, and the Fundacio Politecnica de Catalunya, with the collaboration of the consortium I2Cat and the Elisava Design School. In order to build a prototype of an informational house, this project tests the progression of informational techniques beyond computers, and integrates it into everyday life. As seen here, the Metapolis architects have developed an informative structure, which incorporates in just one element--a house--the physical structure and electrical and data networks that enable a dynamic and configurable link between the entities (people, objects, space, limits, networks, contents) and that which create an inhabitable environment.