IE University champions design and communication at the Hay Festival

Design and communication are the two main themes of the activities co-organized by IE University in the upcoming edition of the Hay Festival, the annual international gathering in celebration of literature and ideas. Hay Festival 2012 is set to take place in Segovia from September 22 to 30, bringing together authors and artists from around the world. As academic partner and key sponsor, IE University is actively collaborating with the Hay Festival, by organizing meetings with big names in diverse disciplines, sponsoring the press office, and encouraging its students to serve as volunteers.

Free voices

On September 22 IE University’s Aula Magna will be the venue for a conversation about the globalized  world among Raja Mohan, Indian expert in international relations and globalization, Antonio Garrigues Walker, lawyer and intellectual linked to humanitarian causes, and Javier Moreno, director of leading Spanish daily El País. The event will be presented by Santiago Íñiguez, president of IE University, and is being co-organized by Fundación AXA and IE University, with the collaboration of Fundación Consejo España-India, The Indian Embassy in Spain, Madrid’s Ritz Hotel, Caja Segovia, Segovia Town Hall and Renfe (Spanish rail). 

DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE

Hardwood model of Segovia’s famous Aqueduct

One of the main activities is a 3-meter high model of a section of the Segovia Aqueduct made of hardwood, led by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). On September 25, IE University students and the citizens of Segovia will erect the model, which is made out of US-sourced tulipwood, next to the original aqueduct. In order to do this they will employ the Lupo system, which consists of using 7 pieces of differently shaped wood to create any architectural form, and is an invention of architect and IE professor Fermín González Blanco. The model will later be taken down and the pieces transported by a chain of volunteers from the Terraza de Santa Columba to the Casa de los Picos with a view to building a new visual work of art in the form of a tower. 

Thomas Heatherwick + Design Thinking:

IE University will also be bringing to the Festival renowned British designer Thomas Heatherwick, considered by critics to be “a Leonardo da Vinci of our times”. Heatherwick will be talking with Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and vice dean of external relations at IE School of Architecture and Design (IE University), about the creative process in his studio and the increasingly blurred borders between design, architecture and society. Thomas Heatherwick designed the UK pavilion in the World Expo held in Shanghai in 2010, the Rolling Bridge in Paddington and the recent Olympic flame cauldron at the 2012 London Games. Heatherwick will be speaking at the Hay Festival about innovation, design, artistic thought processes and new materials.

On September 28, an intensive workshop headed “I want to be more creative” will be led by architect and professor José María de Churtichaga, founder of Ch+Qs and vice dean of IE University’s School of Architecture and Design. The key objective of the workshop is for participants to learn to develop thinking skills and techniques that will stimulated their capacity for creativity and see the world from a different angle. It is focused on Design Thinking, an innovative method which uses a designer’s thought processes to solve problems. 

COMMUNICATION

IE-MARCA:

On September 27 Oscar Campillo, director of Spanish sports daily MARCA, will be talking with Pedro Cifuentes, journalist and communication professor at IE University, about the values that make sport an example for new generations. There will also be a workshop on radio and cultural journalism run in English by Ann Bateson, journalist and director of the Madrid Live program, and held at the MediaLab on the IE University Campus. The key focus of the workshop will be on learning about the work of a radio reporter at an event like the Hay Festival.

IE-ABC:

As in previous editions, leading Spanish daily ABC is organizing a workshop on journalism in collaboration with IE School of Communication, in which the councilor for agriculture of the Castilla y León regional authorities, Silvia Clemente, and renowned author Javier Moro, will talk about different styles of interview. The workshop will be presented by IE University professor of critical thought and linguistics María José Ferrari, and led by Jesús García Calero and Inés Martín Rodrigo from ABC. It will be open to collaboration with everyone through hashtag #ABCenHay, and will be transmitted live via streaming by the IE School of Communication MediaLab team though the culture page at abc.es, with the collaboration of Tierra de Sabor.

Lucy Kellaway

On September 29, history expert and IE University humanities and business professor Rolf Strom-Olsen will be talking with Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway about sense and nonsense in the office. Lucy Kellaway is the author of several books on the world of business, and is known in part for her weekly column in FT in which she writes tongue in cheek about management fads and jargon. She also works with the BBC in a daily program about finance and has received several prizes, including Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards 2006.

To view the Hay Festival Segovia 2012 Programme