IE School of Architecture and Design debuts as partner at 2024 Madrid Design Festival
Thursday, February 8 sees the start of this year’s Madrid Design Festival, the annual international event that brings together architecture, graphic design, communication, interior design and a host of other design-related disciplines. This year’s theme is Redesigning the World. IE School of Architecture and Design will be joining efforts to meet this challenge by contributing six proposals for dialogue and experimentation to the festival's agenda.
“The Madrid Design Festival brings together more than 600 design professionals.”
Clara Llamas, Director of the Bachelor in Design
“It is an opportunity for our school to showcase the work of our students and our faculty, and the initiatives that we are undergoing as a school which is very interested in design that is sustainable, that is full of craftmanship and engaged with its communities.” explains Clara Llamas, Director of the Bachelor in Design.
The school's participation in the festival will kick off on February 15 with a presentation by IE School of Architecture and Design guest Ben Reason. The co-founder of pioneering service design studio Livework will give a talk entitled Design in the Anthropocene: A Critical View of Human-Centered Design. The day before, Reason will be at the IE Tower in Madrid to talk to students at the Critical Reflections on Human Centered Design event.
On February 16, there will be a panel discussion entitled Fashion: Sustainability Goal. A Dialogue on Craftsmanship, Sustainability and Trends composed of Baruc Corazón, Director of the new Bachelor in Fashion Design, Belén Llamas-Ferrier, Margarita Ruyra de Andrade, and Caterina Pañeda. The experts will discuss the urgent need to transform the fashion industry, given its impact on the environment and discuss the future of fashion and how the integration of sustainability, technology, craftsmanship, entrepreneurship and servitization can contribute to a positive and necessary change. The role of education will be one of the key themes of the panel.
On February 17, Ruxandra Iancu Bratosin, Adjunct Professor IE University and Lead Researcher at the IE Center for Sustainable Cities, as well as a 50SuperReal Cofounder, will join Manuel Pérez Romero, Chair of the IE Center for Sustainable Cities, along with Romina Marta Canna, Assistant Professor, d.Lab Director at IE School of Architecture and Design, with moderator Cristina Mateo, Vice-Dean of IE School of Architecture & Design, to discuss the impact of design on our communities and cities. What role can design play in the creation of cities and communities, beyond studies and consultancies? How do we involve citizens in co-creation and participation? What is the role of design as a tool for social empowerment? These are some of the questions that experts from the IE School of Architecture and Design will answer, based on the research carried out by the D-lab in Segovia (presented at the 2023 Chicago Biennial) and the IE Center for Sustainable Cities in Madrid (which is currently working on a co-creation project for the development of a new visual identity with the residents of the Fuencarral district in the north of Madrid).
This year, the festival will also include the Fiesta Design program, an opportunity to learn about the work of design professionals through environments of connection, experimentation, inspiration and discovery. Beginning February 22, Transforming Marine Pollution into Objects of Functional and Aesthetic Value is an exhibition of the work of students from the Design Studio II of IE School of Architecture and Design, in collaboration with Gravity Wave, featuring products created with recycled plastic collected from Spain’s coastline. Through the exhibition and dialogue, Héctor Serrano, Eli Gutierrez, Miguel Leiro, Pablo Alabau and students from the IE School of Architecture and Design will explain the progress of the project, whose main objective is to create attractive products with a strong story behind them that increase awareness of marine plastic pollution.
On the same day, IE School of Architecture and Design will host the Creating Empowering Rituals for Teams, led by professors Joumana Mattar and Knu Kim. This workshop aims to introduce rituals into organizational environments to foster team interaction and cohesion at key moments. Through hands-on activities, participants will learn how to construct rituals and be enriched by examples of companies that have developed their own.
Finally, on February 24, María Esteban will lead the Children's Workshop on Data Visualization Techniques without Technology. Through hands-on activities and in a relaxed environment, children will learn basic concepts of data representation, encouraging creativity and analytical thinking. The workshop will be taught by María Esteban Casañas, Associate Professor at IE School of Architecture and Design, together with design students from IE School of Architecture and Design.
More information in this link.
