From Matter to Model: Materials Intelligence SCALExD Workshop in Barcelona

From Matter to Model: Materials Intelligence was a one-week intensive workshop held from 25–29 May 2026 at IAAC Institute Advanced Architecture Barcelona, bringing together students and teachers from IAAC (Spain), the University of Arts Linz (Austria), and TALM (France). Following SCALExD’s rotating format, the University of Arts Linz developed and taught this edition’s concept, IAAC hosted the week on-site in Barcelona, and TALM joined online.

About the Workshop

The workshop explored the intersection of design processes and materiality, encouraging participants to understand material selection, crafting techniques, and digital tools that support ideation, development, and fabrication. Students worked with natural and engineering materials, combining manual crafting skills with digital fabrication technologies to generate sustainable design concepts.

Guided along an exemplary design process, participants developed both digital designs and a physical mock-up, culminating in a hybrid presentation. Throughout the week, the programme placed a strong emphasis on responsible resource use, material-informed design methods, and the role of digital technology as a supportive design tool.

In Barcelona, 34 students worked on-site throughout the week, guided by 4 trainers, Martin Schwab, Johannes Braumann, Marta Rota, and Pit Siebenaler, and joined by guest expert Amanda Rivera Vidal. TALM contributed remotely from Le Mans, where 11 students took part under the supervision of Felix Agid and Ianis Lallemand, enabling international collaboration across the three partner institutions.

Student Projects

Throughout the week, student groups developed a diverse range of material-informed digital prototypes, from ideation towards fabrication planning.

The projects addressed themes such as:

• Material selection, crafting techniques, and digital tools in dialogue
• Hybrid workflows combining ideation, development, and fabrication
• Responsible resource use and material-informed design methods
• Interdisciplinary collaboration between design, architecture, and crafts

Learning Outcomes & Impact

The workshop enabled participants to:

• Develop interdisciplinary collaboration skills across design, architecture, and crafts
• Gain hands-on experience with material-driven design, manual and digital fabrication workflows
• Test experimental, project-based teaching methodologies

The workshop not only fostered hands-on learning in materials and digital fabrication, but also acted as a testing ground for project-based teaching methodologies within the Erasmus+ SCALExD project, reinforcing the collaborative, cross-institutional model that defines the programme.

A big thank you to all students, trainers, and guest experts who made this collaborative experience possible: Martin Schwab, Johannes Braumann, Marta Rota, Pit Siebenaler, Felix Agid, Ianis Lallemand, Amanda Rivera Vidal, Alex Dubor, Valeria Carrión.