IED Madrid Visit

A snail used as inspiration for our design workshop.

We had a site visit to IED Madrid, an art school located in the center of Madrid. The building itself was fascinating. It was very open, had lots of light and dark contrasting colors, with pops of colors in furniture and drawings on the glass windows and the glass elevator. This, alone, seemed to foster creativity within the school.

We then learned about “biomimicry,” a word coined by a professor at IED which explains how we should be more aware about designing for the environment and to be inspired by nature. After his presentation, we got to work with students of IED to design something which can help when natural disasters strike. Our inspiration? Live snails!

Our group designed a snail-like robot which can roll over debris and use it’s sensors to determine if there are people under the debris. Additionally, the robot snail’s spiral “shell” was strong enough to support anything that hit it, and inside held supplies such as food, water, and medicine.

Before leaving, we got a tour of the building, and learned that the structure is over 100 years old, and is being maintained to keep it’s older design features present, such as the painted ceilings and the exposed beams. Our visit to IED was very inspiring and fun, and it related perfectly to our design course—which is what led us to Spain to begin with!