Congratulations to our Marketing Coordinator, Elaine Chan, for winning the 2014 AIA/CAE Conference Scholarship to Barcelona!
We just know that you'll be bringing back a wealth of knowledge...and plenty of Amatller Chocolates + Crema Catalana Liquor.
Sipping mimosas and representing Kwan Henmi at the Opening Ceremony in Mies Pavillion. Cheers!
A Word from Bob Maje, FAIA, on the Conference:
The conference opens at one of the iconic buildings of the era of modern architecture, The Barcelona Pavilion, which is Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece and will set the tone for this conference. Our speaker that evening is a well known expert in Architectural Design and the Catalonian culture, Josep Maria Montaner. Monday we will be concentrating on a number of
sites within the city of Barcelona; on Tuesday we extend our tours to the surrounding region; and on Wednesday our conference concludes with a return to the heart of Barcelona and Gaudi’s masterpiece The Sagrada Familia. We will see educational facilities of all types and
be hosted by some amazing architects, educators, and policy makers from the region.
We have the good fortune of being hosted at each site by some of the leading architects of not only of the Catalonian region, but of the entire European continent, and will have the
opportunity to engage and interact with educational experts, teachers, and in some very special cases, students. Experts in cutting edge issues in sustainability, one from the United States and one from Germany, will offer their insights into the latest aspects of this important area of educational design, and we have invited a speaker from the previous London conference who will update us on his exciting and innovative work designing educational environments for students with special needs, including those on the Autism Spectrum.
The Catalonian region is rich in culture, and on the world stage has some of the most exciting examples of teaching and learning environments, particularly those related to early childhood education; the value of design and the apparent synergy between teaching, learning, and
school design is evident. Design competitions have often been used to promote and push the boundaries, resulting in some of the most progressive examples of the impact of design and architecture on learning.
