This is an archive page for Milan

Forthcoming dates for this school to be announced.

Milan

Saturday 7 – Tuesday 17 July 2012

We grow food fast, we eat fast, we diet fast or we could say, ‘we waste fast’. What is the future of food consumption, and what form will the new urban landscape of food production take? Can we imagine environments of novel culinary exploration, engineered from a hybridisation of traditional Italian practices, rites and festivals with contemporary digital design technologies, prototyping protocols and bio-gardening techniques?

‘Cyber-GARDENing the city’ proposes a new form of bio-architectural design laboratory where multiple growing practices are explored as the means to critically assess the future of urban agriculture and its potential to evolve into new bio-architectural landscapes and radical urban lifestyles. The teaching model of the lab is grounded in the experimental tradition of the AA and the design philosophy of ecoLogicStudio, who will run the workshop.

Set within the emergent bio-farming network on the outskirts of Milan (site of the 2015 World Expo), our first productive atelier will embark on a series of ‘growing’ experiments inspired by the achievements of the Slow Food movement, but radicalising its efforts through the deliberate crosscontamination of the traditional and the futuristic, the natural and the bio-engineered.

Aspiring cyber-gardeners will be able to explore and invent new hybrid design practices by combining digital growth simulations with biological sensing, robotic actuation with hydroponic cultivation, and cutting-edge rapid prototyping with traditional crochet. These bio-architectural playgrounds will materialise as 1:1 prototypical spaces embedded with biological life, sensing and actuating potential and digital computational power.

The workshop will be supported by a series of seminars, growing sessions with invited specialists, and dedicated algorithmic modelling and prototyping tutorials. The workshop is open to students and professionals from the disciplines of architecture, urban, landscape, product and interactive design, biology, computer science and robotics. Gardening enthusiasts are welcome.

Applications

The deadline for applications is 30 June 2012. All participants travelling from abroad are responsible for securing any visa required. After payment of fees, the AA can provide a letter confirming participation in the workshop. A portfolio or CV is not required, only the online application form and payment. Applicants can receive a 10% discount if applying before 25th April, and a 25% discount if applying as a group of 4 people.

Fees

The AA Visiting School requires a fee of £695 per participant, which includes a £50 Visiting Membership. If you are already a member, the total fee will be reduced automatically by £50 by the online payment system. Fees are non refundable. Fees do not include flights or accommodation, but accommodation with local students can be arranged for visiting students.

Participants need to bring their own camera equipment and laptops with a current version of Rhino and Grasshopper readily installed. Please ensure this equipment is covered by your own insurance as the AA takes no responsibility for items lost or stolen at the workshop.

Eligibility
The workshop is open to architecture and design students and professionals worldwide.