The Norman Foster Foundation is awarding ten scholarships to participate in the upcoming Digital X workshop to be held at the Norman Foster Foundation headquarters in Madrid, Spain, 18–22 February 2019, in association with e-flux Architecture.

The Digital X workshop, mentored by Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and former director of MIT Media Lab, will comprise a team of granted scholars drawn from the diverse backgrounds of the digital world, design and architecture.

"All things digital are simultaneously local and global, large and small, inside and outside of any given boundary," stated workshop mentor Nicholas Negroponte. 

"The digital world brings together previously separate worlds, like those of discovery, invention and expression. It does that because it has become the DNA of each. The natural world and the artificial world are becoming interchangeable. Change will happen very rapidly. Fasten your seatbelts."

With that concept as a background, the workshop is designed to pose key questions and come up with some considered conclusions . Can you build a city without infrastructure: no roads, no sewers, no water or power? Why bother? The answer is to renovate informal settlements without bulldozing them, which is something that could impact two or three billion people. Call it a new autonomy, that of a house or a small community, taking some pages from outer space and bringing them back to earth.

The Academic Body spans a wide range of practitioners from the fields of design and innovation, including Amber Case, Co-founder of CyborgCamp, Cambridge, MA, United States; W. Daniel Hillis, Co-founder of Thinking Machines Corporation and of Applied Invention, Cambridge, MA, United States; Mary Lou Jepsen, Founder of Openwater, San Francisco, CA, United States; Hasier Larrea, Founder and CEO of Ori Inc., Cambridge, MA, United States; David Moinina Sengeh, Chief Innovation Officer at the Government of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone and Ben Vickers, Chief Technology Officer at the Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom

After reviewing applications submitted by hundreds of candidates from around the world, the selection committee awarded ten scholarships to students from the following universities and institutions: American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon; American University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ashesi University, Berekuso, Ghana; Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Cape Town University, Cape Town, South Africa; Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States; Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, United States; Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain and the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

After reviewing applications submitted by hundreds of candidates from around the world, the selection committee awarded ten scholarships to students from the following universities and institutions: American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon; American University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ashesi University, Berekuso, Ghana; Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Cape Town University, Cape Town, South Africa; Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States; Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, United States; Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain and the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

These ten students will be asked to park reality at the door. Inviting them to bring their most advanced thinking, craziest ideas, whether they relate to architecture or not, to apply them, their derivatives or simply their point of view to the needs of the world’s poorest people, especially the increasing number who live in informal settlements.

The Digital X Workshop will include seminars, lectures, one-to-one tutoring and architectural tours to learn more about the context of Madrid culminating in a five day workshop led by the Atelier mentor, Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and former director of MIT Media Lab.

e-flux Architecture will join this year’s edition of the Digital X workshop as its editorial partner. Editors Nikolaus Hirsch and Nick Axel will conduct a series of interviews during the duration of the workshop, the result of this joint initiative will be unveiled in Spring 2019.

Grants will cover all transportation, accommodation and meals related to the week-long event in Madrid. Scholars will engage with an interdisciplinary Academic Body formed by mentors ranging from the fields of electronics and software engineering to social sciences and art.

Public Debates

Tuesday 19 February 2019, 12:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.

Fundación Francisco Giner de los Ríos
Paseo del General Martínez Campos 14, 28010, Madrid, Spain

With the participation of Amber Case, W. Daniel Hillis, Mary Lou Jepsen, David Moinina Sengeh, Nicholas Negroponte and Ben Vickers.

Tim Stonor, Managing Director of Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom, and part of the Advisory Board of the Norman Foster Foundation, will chair the debates.

All images courtesy of Norman Foster Foundation

> via Norman Foster Foundation