A group of students of the FabLab Academy, at Iaac, came this Thursday to visit the Valldaura premises. As the winter is fading away unleashing the spring, they were greeted by some rain – which became a great excuse to visit the house and its facilities. After a while, the weather seemed to be clement with the visitors and they also had the chance to walk around the paths and forest that surround the house.

Valldaura is going to have its own GreenFabLab within a few months; and the group of current students was highly impressed by the possibilities that the place and the surroundings have, and excited about such new kind of FabLab.

It doesn’t often snow in Collserola, and the few times when that happens, the few flakes fallen fail to create a minimum layer of snow.

But rarely, every few years, it’s cold enough and enough snow falls to turn our landscape into white for a few hours or a few days, and the silhouettes change their tones in a suggestive way.

This weekend, the snow has visited Collserola, and has covered all of Valldaura’s corners. The century-old fig tree that arises, not from the ground, but of a side wall next to the esplanade, is perhaps one of the most beautiful examples of the surprise that nature brought us this Saturday morning.

A group of 15 students from Greece and 15 students from Cyprus visitED Can Valldaura as part of the visit sites of the Environmental Design Training Workshops that they attended at IAAC.

The students have been selected by the Development Centre of Thessaly (Greece) and DOUMAD LTD (Cyprus) for receiving a training at IAAC as part of a European commissioned program by the European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)

Students will perform many activities both in the house and in the environment of Valldaura. The research study, which is part of the Master in Advanced Interaction of IAAC, will be conducted by the Department of Industrial Design of the Eindhoven University of Technology and specifically by the following persons: Eunjeong Jeon, Martijn ten Bhömer, Kristi Kuusk, Eva Deckers and Oscar Tomico (contact person). Research partners include the Centro Superior de Diseño (ESDI), part of the Foundation of Disseny Tèxtil xtile (FUNDIT), by Marina Castán, Bywire.net by Marina Toeters, and Sietske Klooster.

The emergence of intelligent textile technology leads to new possibilities for the human welfare. The research study explores this emerging design space and proposes a new design practice. A practice that recognizes that textiles are intimate and central in everyday life, completely intertwined with our conscious and unconscious behavior, and with our identity. A practice that exhibits a sensitivity to the interaction of the body, recognizes the importance of posture and movement, and

appreciates the 1st person point of view. A practice that confronts the practicalities of integrating the world of electronics, fashion, manufacturing and design. To allow this practice, the research study focuses on three main challenges: 1) the study of the dynamic relationship between the body, the fabrics and the context, 2) the development of interaction styles that fit close to the body, and 3) discovering smart fabrics which are close to the final product and product-service system (SPS).

Marco Poletto, director of the research studio at the Architectural Association and co-founder of ecoLogicStudio, visited Valldaura this 21th of January.
Poletto will be part of the Master Design for Self Sufficiency, and some of his proposals include planting hemp as a material for use in manufacturing processes. His students will learn both the applications of hemp fibers, as well as methods of its implementation within construction processes.