The Fab Lab House Project

Fab Lab BCN

The Fab Lab House Project lead by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the Center for Bit and Atoms of the MIT and a world wide network of fab labs have been chosen as one of participants in Solar Decathlon Europe competition, which will take place in Madrid in June 2010.

The prototype is understood as a result of the negotiated consensus of the sum. More than a closed design, more than a description of an object, the prototype defined here is presented as a combination of a series of intentional strategies, and the realization of a series of affirmations that we intend to defend.

###Basic conditions of the proposal:

The first argument is based on a distinct industrialization model. Set against the industrialization of mass production, digital design techniques and the new technologies of personalized fabrication, CAD CAM and that which is closely linked between design and fabrication, we offer them vast possibilities of adaptation between real needs and specific answers. It is based on this point that we propose the international network of Fab Labs as a base of production for prototype development.

The second argument is based on the extended definition of technological efficiency. We intend to add to the concept of efficiency a factor of accessibility and apply these values to all the design categories of the prototype, from the structure to the finishes. We propose to measure, for example, the efficiency of a photo-sensitive material not by its energy efficacy, but by the relation of its price, availability, complexity /technical opacity, possibilities of use, adaptation transformation assembly facility and maintenance… and its energy collecting efficiency. Through this change of viewpoint we intend to make the user an agent of participation and a transformer of the space they inhabit.

The third, the emergent logic of the component and distribution of intelligence. Set against the opposing sum of elements originating from different technical fields, set against the typical “box + panel”, we argue in favour of the distribution of intelligence. Each component of the prototype contains the same technical, energy, and structural level, etc… as the rest. The logic, in its entirety is found in each of the parts and not in it’s entirety.

Finally, the prototype presented here is the result of an open evaluation process of different prototype options, subjected to formal criteria as well as constructive logics and energy efficiency in which all of the agents that have actively participated will form part of their subsequent development.

###Credits:

FabLabHouse is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and Center for Bit and Atoms of MIT, developed for the Solar Decathlon Europe in 2010

###Team:

– Directors : Vicente Guallart (IaaC), Neil Gershenfeld (MIT-CBA)
– Research Co-Directors : Daniel Ibañez, Rodrigo Rubio
– Researchers : James Brazil, Cesar Daoud, Minnie Jan, Daisuke Nagamoto, Romuald Spilevski, Jezi Stankevic, Ricardo Zaldivar, David Moreno Rubio (external researcher)
– Iaac Board : Areti Markopoulou, Laia Pifarré, Willy Muller, Marta Malé-Alemany, Lucas Cappelli, Fernando Meneses, Daniela Frogheri, Hemant Purhoit, Cesar Cruz Casares, Luis Fraguada, Jorge Ramirez
– Fab Lab Barcelona : Tomas Diez, Guillem Camprodon, Benito Juarez, Victor Freundt, Aysheshim Tilahun, Melat Asefa, Susanna Tesconi
– MAA Thesis Project Students : Melissa Mazik, Gopal Garg, Nicholas Waissbluth, Pedro Precedo, Mia Gorretti Layco, Paula Lucía López González, Fabio Lopez, Javier Palacios, Brian Miller, Natalija Boljsakov, Acim Hameed
– MIT Center For Bits and Atoms : Kenny Cheung, Nadya Peek, David Kopp, Kerry Lynn, Amy Sun
– Solar Decathlon Students : Gianluca Santosuosso, Leonidas Paterakis, Jeffrey Christopher Clarke, Jun Huang, Marianne Villalobos Emonet, Ander Gortazar Balerdi, Jacek Markusiewicz, Georgia Kotsari, Eftychia Papathanasiou, Paula Lucía López, Maria Lucía Mogollon, Kfir Gluzberg, Matheus Lopes, Viraj Kataria, Hristo Topchiev, Ilaria La Manna, Tamara Obradovic, Diana Bauder, Pedro Precedo, Tomasz Starczewski, Eleni Kolovou, Veronica Lorenzo Luaces Pico, Emil Burulyanov, Kathleen Anderson, Ali Gharakhani, Edgar Bove, Michael Aaron Harrison
– Solar Energy Students : Qiuxiao Jian, Katerina Agorastaki, Jose Alvarez, Tatiana Anagnostara, Shradha Bhandari, Gianmatteo Cossu, Anastasia Fotopoulou, Rodolfo Baiz, Katerina Karagianni, Niovi Ketonis, Maria Koutsari, Karolina Kurzak, Sergio Leone, Guo Liang, Javier Martinez, Larisa Melnikova, Vangelis Moschonas, Vinay Patil, Christina Tsompanoglou, Alejandro Vega, Nathaniel Velez
– Summer Wotkshop Students : Slobodan Radoman, Athina Stamatopoulou, Rodrigo Toledo, Gabriel Ochoa, Kevin Vervuurt, Lourdes Marcano, Luis Odiaga, María Claudia Levy