20 Scholarships the AA BILBAO Visiting School: COMPUTING TOPOS III 2014 / Bilbao, Spain - Image 1 of 9 — © AA Visiting School

| Translated by Sebastian Jordana
Published on July 02, 2014

AA Visiting School is an international network of design workshops and other programs organized by the Architectural Association School of Architecture. This event will be realized in Bilbao, Spain between July 23 and August 5.

AA Visiting School will give away 20 scholarships for those interested in attending. If so, you need to send your CV/portfolio and a description explaining why would you like to attend the event.

The workshop will explore the question of ‘place’ or ‘topos’ and its radical transformation in the recent years due to the proliferation and availability of environmental parameters. The rise of digital methods in architectural design as well as simulation platforms for environmental analysis, have produced a renewed interest in the relationship between architecture and phenomena and in particular into the possibility of the integration of environmental aspects into the design process. Nevertheless, approximation means to environmental phenomena in relation to urban morphology need to be further explored to mediate between sophisticated simulation platforms and design agendas, beyond reductionist definitions of the environment.

We will be working on Metropolitan Bilbao, looking for opportunities in residual areas as well as former industrial sites. These spaces that are neither private nor public but ‘common’ are identified as potentially interesting to engage with the exploration of new types and their capacity to redefine the relationship between architecture and the city as well as the feedback process generated throughout multiple scales. Thus, we will put forward a design strategy based on prototypical notions which will intervene, decode and mediate both between local and abstract or environmental and material conditions.

The workshop will investigate new design processes to produce context sensitive environments from a critical perspective. Local ‘materials’ such as user behaviour, social patterns or environmental analysis will inform the design process. In order to construct this agenda, the workshop will invest on digital design by studying data-feed protocols, environmental simulation software and algorithmic design.

The 10-days workshop will be accompanied by fruitful discussions and lectures with local and international professionals, theoreticians and scientists from the field, to discuss about alternative and critic methods of design and environmental adaptability. A closing or opening symposium ‘Processing Environments III’ will also be held open to a wider public.