AA Visiting School Ivrea / Italy

The AA Visiting School in Ivrea is a twelve days course focusing on the experimental use of computational and robotic fabrication methodologies as generators of new architectural sensibilities. As the former headquarters of the Olivetti productive facilities, Ivrea will offer the unique opportunity to immerge in the rich architectural, design and cultural tradition of one of the greatest industrial projects of the XX Century.

Our initial design hypothesis concerns a scenario where living and working conditions are increasingly merging and this year workshop participants will be asked to explore the evolution of the former Olivetti “Nuova ICO” factory into a prototypical live/work environment.

The research will begin from a custom-written application of Digital Project led by Gehry Technologies tutors. Through this application we will cross reference between DP, Rhino, Grasshopper and processing techniques to generate and fabricate a full scale live/work prototype. This will be developed in line with emerging industrial standards and manufacturing processes including DMU (Digital Mock Ups), PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and Rapid Prototyping modules. 

In following the AA trademark unit methodology, students will recombine in two groups constantly cross feeding information through a fully parametricized model.

Unit A - Generative Histograms

This unit sets to explore a voxel based architecture using genetic algorithms and optimization studies.

(Digital Project - Rhino - Grasshopper - Processing)

Unit B - Robotic Lab

By exploring robotic manufacturing techniques, this unit sets to generate, test and fabricate a variety of architectural components at a 1:1 scale.

(ABB RobotStudio - DP - Rhino - Grasshopper)

The final results will be a full scale prototype, robotically manufactured components, and large drawings recovering the rich communicative qualities of the Olivetti advertising campaigns.

The course will be supported by a series of interdisciplinary seminars and the works will be collected in a publication and exhibited in London, Ivrea and Rome. The workshop is open to architecture and design students and professionals worldwide. No specific software or programming knowledge is required.

STANDARD APPLICATION_ £695 per participant, which includes a £50 AA Visiting Student Membership

EARLY APPLICATION_10% discount if applying before the 31st of May

GROUP APPLICATION _25% discount if applying in groups of minimum four people before the 1st of July

MORE ON: ivrea.aaschool.ac.uk