BPro AD SuperCrit 2023

Jakub klaska,Tiffany Cheng, daniela MiTTerberger,Theodora Paulo flores,gili r

CaMPbell orMe,aldo sollazzo,Ca

MoriTz doersTelMann,

anna-Maria MeisTer,Jose

nils fisCher, Maria yablonina,Mar

MusTafa el-sayed,Casey

PaTrik sChuMaCher, ToshikaTsu kiuChi,Jelle roland snooks,Jose san sung ho kiM,karolin sC

daniel koehler, winka d

Cheng,sebasTian andia, erberger,Theodora Vardouli, ron,daniel koehler, sollazzo,CaTherine griffiThs ann,sTefana ParasCho, er,Jose sanChez,Theo lalis, ablonina,MarCelyn gow, ayed,Casey rehM her,areTi MarkoPoulou, feringa,alisa andrasek, anChez,PhiliPPe Morel, sChMidbaur,andrew wiTT, dubbeldaM,PhiliPPe bloCk

abouT b-Pro

B-Pro is a group of five graduate programmes. These programmes welcome a diverse international student cohort, with highly structured access to the realisation and application of research, and the production of new schemes of conception and construction in architecture and urbanism.

Throughout the year, B-Pro tutors and students develop numerous seminars, workshops, lectures and public events to encourage collaboration and the discussion of ideas which further our understanding of the future of design, the urban environment and architecture.

Through a shared vision of creative architecture, B-Pro is an opportunity for students both to participate in a new community and to affirm the singularity of their individual talents. These programmes are not only an open door to an advanced architectural practice but also form the base from which each student can define their particular approach and architectural philosophy, in order to seek a position in the professional world.

Attracting high-calibre staff from all over the world and led by Chair of School Professor Frédéric Migayrou, B-Pro includes a number of research ‘labs’ dedicated to advanced experimentation in architectural and urban theory.

B-Pro Director: Professor Frédéric Migayrou

B-Pro Deputy Director: Andrew Porter

B-Pro AD Programme Director: Tyson Hosmer

B-Pro UD Programme Director: Roberto Bottazzi

B-Pro Programmes:

Architectural Design (AD) - (MArch)

Urban Design (UD) - (MArch)

Architectural Computation (AC) - (MSc/MRes)

Architecture & Digital Theory (ADT) - (MRes)

Bio-Integrated Design (BioID) - (MArch/MSc)

B-Pro ad research clusters 2022-2023

RC1 MonuMEntAl WAStEl AnDS

Design: Hadin Charbel and Déborah lópez lobato technical: Vicente Sánchez, Zehao Quin theory: Albert Brenchat

Research Cluster 1 explores the imminent nature of the Anthropocene under the lens of ubiquity, examining the production of data, raw material, logistical processes and their impacts on contemporary scenes. Focusing on two strands of research topics, ‘Cli-migration’ and ‘Autonomous Ecologies’, speculations are put forward that challenge current profit driven models, arguing for decolonisation, decentralisation, automation and participation, to collapse human and non-human perspectives.

A methodology of preservation through adaptation, referred to as ‘decoding’ and ‘recoding’, deploys a combination of machine learning, generative algorithms and video game engines, moving away from a nostalgic return, and instead embracing the uncertainty and possibilities through practical yet sensitively tuned, contextualised strategies.

This year’s theme is ‘Hyper-Local’, questioning the meaning of local, vernacular, sustainability, and time today. Building upon previous years’ use of video game engines and world building, Climate-Fiction (Cli-Fi) serves as a vehicle for these imminent realities to be researched, experimented with and projected, with the added foregrounding of physical prototyping.

rC2 softroboTiC arChiTeCTure

Design: Valentina Soana technical: Shahram Minooee Saber y theory: Provides ng

RC2 explores emerging design possibilities of lightweight robotic structures at architectural scale.

For a long time now, designers have envisioned building systems that can respond and adapt to multiple human, environmental and structural conditions. Recent technological advancements in robotics enable machines to be self-aware, plan and react to undetermined circumstances. The integration of robotic solutions into lightweight elastic material systems can create novel intelligent structures that are able to self-form, reconfigure and achieve multiple states, leveraging material behaviours. RC2 questions the role of robotics in architecture beyond their use as fabrication and construction tools, moving towards a novel concept of architectural robots.

The cluster focuses on the development of novel material-machine-kinetic systems where robotic operations are embedded within material systems and controlled in real-time by a cyber-physical network. Behaviours emerge, in turn, through negotiation between human, designer, material and machine interaction.

rC3 liVing arChiTeCTure lab

Design: tyson Hosmer, octavian Gheorghiu and Philipp Siedler

technical: Ziming He, Baris Erdincer, Panagiotis tigas

theory: Jordi Vivaldi Piera

Research Cluster 3 interrogates the notion of ‘living architecture’ as a coupling of living systems with the continuous [re]assembly and [re]formation of architecture. The lab holistically reappraises the unsustainable linear life cycles of buildings, learning from living systems extraordinary scalable efficiencies of adaptive construction with simple flexible parts. The research focuses on developing autonomously reconfigurable buildings integrating AI-driven generative spatial design platforms, novel robotic material systems, and cyber-physical simulation, sensing, and control. Each project develops the three subsystems in relation to each other, considering both the constraints of the design algorithms and the robotic material systems, enabling intelligent spatial adaptation with a continuous feedback chain. Experimental design models are embedded with the ability to self-organize, self-assess, and self-improve using deep reinforcement learning to train both the adaptive design algorithms and adaptive robotic assembly behaviour in the simulator.

Projects operate across several scales and topologies, from small-scale collaborative robotics for assembly, to adaptive robotic tensegrity and hybrid systems, to larger scale robotic spatial embodiment. Projects develop new socio-economic models and scalable platforms for distributed living, working, and production. The research this year has largely evolved around collective robotic construction (CRC) systems as ecologies of varied modular robots working collaboratively.

rC5 ProduCT arChiTeCTure

Design: Stefan Bassing, Marios tsiliakos

technical: JJ lee, Zehao Qin, Mumin Keser, Calin Craiu

theory: Daria Ricchi

Research Cluster 5 investigates the relationship between digital and physical products for spatial applications. We are targeting the transformation of the traditionally service-oriented architectural design industry, towards developing its own product applications that are scalable and automated. Students will work with user centric design thinking strategies, to identify an acute spatial problem first. In the next step we develop multi-layered technology solutions for these individual use cases through the application of state-of-the-art technologies such as machine learning, gamification, robotics and 3d printing.

This year we investigate affordable configurable 3d printed housing solutions, highly adaptive co-working spaces which employ robotic furniture, and rethinking contemporary education as a gamified experience in the metaverse age.

rC6 MaTerial arChiTeCTure lab

Design: Christopher Fischlein, Guan lee, Daniel Widrig

theory: Ruby law

In RC6, material is the starting point and key driver for our design projects. The most critical and practical aspect of architecture for us is the matter we make with and why. This year, we will study materials used in art for the conception, production and inhabitation of architecture. What is the significance of materials in making art, and what can we learn from it? Are the key differences of utility and scale? What happens when an art fabricator makes architecture, and what if a builder of buildings were to make artwork? Methods and media in art production are varied and often do not conform to any single criteria, yet they are pointed and specific. Like art, the material we choose to make architecture has environmental, geographical, cultural and political weight. Can the material of art be more than the sum of its parts? How do we explore the art of material use?

rC7 unruly asseMblies

Design: Richard Beckett, Chris Whiteside technical: Juan Cantu, Eleana Polychronaki theory: Yota Adilenidou

Operating at the intersection of biodigital design and architecture, RC7 continues its research into integrating living biological systems and materials into architecture towards creating more healthy and resilient cities. This year, a specific interest in ‘grown’ composite materials alongside the use of environmentally driven machine learning models, informs the conception of new building paradigms and the development of novel biofabrication techniques. Considering the contemporary understanding of the human as a holobiont along with shifting modes of biopolitics, students will develop novel biologically driven spatial assemblies to provide for multiple living agencies across a range of building typologies. Projects will explore these living material systems and building typologies for urban living alongside radical solutions addressing issues including urban growth in the age of the Anthropocene, and the need to rewild urban environments with microbiodiversity. Topics this year revolve around themes questioning circular material ecologies in relation to architectural concepts of ageing, permanence and decay.

rC8 Towards a MulTi-MaTerial arChiTeCTure

Design: Kostas Grigoriadis

technical: Samuel Esses, Alvaro lopez Rodriguez

theory: Ilaria Di Carlo

Research Cluster 8’s main research focus is multi-material design, and the wider implications that the use of multi-materials will have on architecture and building construction. We explore new procedures of designing and building with material gradients, aiming to rethink component-based assembly and the standard practice of twentieth century mechanical connectivity. In previous years, the Cluster investigated the use of robotic fabrication for the in-situ 3D printing of building facades and the fusion of materials such as metal and glass to generate component-less, materially continuous envelopes. This year students researched into the origins of the materials that make up larger multi-material topologies from recycled sources, and the end-of-life strategy of the buildings and structures that will be deployed across London.

rC9 arChiTeCTure for The augMenTed age

Design: Alvaro lopez Rodriguez & Igor Pantic

technical: Hanjun Kim

theory: Daria Ricchi

As we immerse ourselves into rapidly developing Extended Realities (XR), the barriers between humans and machines are becoming increasingly blurred, with portable devices augmenting our perception of the environment. XR have the capability to assist manufacturing processes, enhancing human labour with data previously exclusive to machines while enabling seamless inclusion of intuitive decision-making and experience, often absent from automated construction processes. XR technologies can also radically change how we interact and experience the built environment by enhancing, altering or adding a new layer of information to our surroundings. Research Cluster 9 explores how the XR technologies can change the ways in which we design, build, and interact with the environment. Ideas like augmented manufacturing, gig economy or digital platforms for multi-player design and distributed manufacturing, as well as immersive experience and interaction with the built environment and the metaverse, will therefore act as the central core for all the research streams.

rCX ConsTruCTing The PhygiTal

Design: Federico Borello and Cesar Fragachan

technical: Jianfei Chu

theory: Alejandro Veliz Reyes

RCX is dedicated to investigating and advancing cutting-edge design and tech-enabled processes in the field of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). By harnessing the power of computation and embracing the latest emerging technologies, the cluster aims to push the boundaries of innovation in the industry. Focus of the cluster is addressing the pressing issue of London’s housing shortage, by adopting a tech-enabled and participatory design approach. Data on the requirements of end users are gathered through various platforms that draw inspiration from the gaming, automobile, and aerospace industries.This data-driven approach ensures that the resulting housing solutions are precisely tailored to meet the needs and preferences of future occupants.

Furthermore, RCX explores the synergies between Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) practices and Industrialized Modular Construction technologies. By integrating these two methodologies, the cluster aims to develop structure and production-aware parametric architectural components.Kit of parts are developed and deployed into prototypical scenarios which consist of both private and public spaces, aiming to create sustainable mixed developments, increasing density in urban areas while promoting enhanced community interactions and overall well-being.

RCX endeavors to foster enhanced community interactions and overall well-being by designing spaces that facilitate social connections and promote a sense of community, addressing not only the pressing housing shortage but also contributing to the broader societal need for sustainable and harmonious urban environments.

Matter / Behaviour 05.07

10:15am13:30pm Bst

Panel: JakuB klaska,seBastian andia, tiffany cheng,daniela MitterBerger, aldo sollazzo

MorPhoTeXTura

Students: lijia Ding, lemeng Shi, Qiyao Wang, Fangyin Wu

Design: Christopher Fischlein, Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig

Theory: Ruby Law

MorphoTextura investigates the interplay between natural materials and traditional weaving techniques. Through an exploration of the lost wax casting technique, we have studied the properties of wax and its role in shaping materials. Using natural materials as cotton, wool, fabric, and rope we have investigated knots and weaves by augmenting 3dimensional patterns. The wax is re-introduced to act as a binder to enhance the stability of the pattern, before the material is cast as metal, transforming the soft material into sturdy metal, while maintaining its visual properties. MorphoTextura connects textures, crafts, and materials, bridging traditional practices and digital technologies.

11:00 rC7 MyCoPulP

Students: Qianyuan Jin, Xiaoxuan Qu, lokyi Chan

Design: Richard Beckett , Chris Whiteside

Technical: Juan Cantu, Eleana Polychronaki

Theory: Yota Adilenidou

MycoPulp explores the development of low energy, rapidly renewable composite materials for architecture that are part fabricated part ‘grown’ . Sited within the fields of biodigital design and engineered living materials, the projects utilises waste materials in line with trends towards circular material economies that then serve as a structural scaffold for the secondary growth of mycelium to explore living building elements. This biofabrication approach produces ‘unruly’ composites, that are partly controllable in terms of stiffness, thickness and mass, but vibrant and ephemeral in their form and behaviour as they lose or gain moisture, and become colonised by time, environment and nature. Using this approach, the project rejects the modern paradigm of demolition and rebuild and instead explores the adaptive reuse of non-structural building parts using materials that require a reframing of the idea that buildings should be permanent. These composites are imagined as components for non-permanent elements of the building fabric, creating ephemeral biological spaces for buildings that undergo cyclical phases of decay and re-growth/manufacture.

rC9 ardobe

Students: Yubo Wang, Haowen Xue, Yifan Xue, Xuan Zhang

Design: Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez & Igor Pantic

Technical: Hanjun Kim

Theory: Daria Ricchi

Inspired by traditional earth architecture, this project explores the possibility of using low-tech methods to construct buildings in remote areas with the aid of Mixed Reality (MR) devices. In the process of formwork and construction, MR technology is deployed as a tool for guided construction. Traditional formwork typically requires skilled workers for precise assembly and construction, which limits architectural expression, prolongs construction time, and increases construction costs. Therefore, this project adopts a ground-based inverted mould and develops an MR application to manage the construction process, including positioning the formwork, controlling the depth, managing material proportions, and organizing the module fabrication and assembly sequence.

rC6 MeTalliC fabriC

Students: Xinyu tan, Zhiyuan tian, Yunxuan Xiao, Jingyang Yuan

Design: Christopher Fischlein, Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig

Theory: Ruby Law

The concept of design language transcends various fields, as utilising the same elements in different contexts can yield new functions and aesthetics. In this project, we focus on the transfer of material properties from one contrasting material to another. Our primary focus lies in fabric transformation within the realm of fashion design, where we incorporate it into our own design language. Decorative textures and functional seams typically used on flat fabrics take center stage, becoming the foundational structures for our designs, resulting in three-dimensional objects of varying sizes. Simultaneously, we explore the morphology and study process technologies that enable the transfer of soft material morphology to hard materials. This allows us to present the aesthetics of fabrics, typically unrelated to traditional architecture, in the form of a metal architectural language characterised by striking material contrasts.

Students: Zhen Huang, Xinao Zhang, Zhen Zhao

Design: Kostas Grigoriadis

Technical: Samuel Esses, Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez

Theory: Ilaria di Carlo

In London, a lot of plastics and organic materials go to waste every day. Additionally, there is a pressing need for more retail space, while there are many urban pocket sites and spaces that are currently unused. The project addresses these issues by proposing to build micro-retail spaces at vacant sites across London. The spaces are fabricated using robotic additive manufacturing and consist of graded plastic fused with oyster and coffee grounds that can be recycled after construction. In terms of the design of these structures, we combine lattice geometries derived through topology optimization to generate enclosures that save material and make full use of the leftover sites.

13:00

rC6 sliP-MâChé

Students: Mingyi Xia, Xiangyu Zhou, Jiaqi Yao

Design: Christopher Fischlein, Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig

Theory: Ruby Law

This project harnesses the transformative potential of combining clay and paper. The composite materials exhibit excellent adhesion to various surfaces, minimizing self-cracking and expediting the dehydration and hardening process. During high-temperature firing, the paper component of the composite material gasifies and disappears, leaving behind porous structures. Leveraging these characteristics, we can bypass traditional pottery tools such as pottery wheels or plaster molds. Instead, we can swiftly and efficiently create thin shells using Papier-Mâché techniques and produce ceramic tiles with porous patterns using laminate techniques. These methods present innovative solutions for constructing modern ceramic buildings, sculptures, landscape structures, and more.

Media + ai / augMentation

05.07 15:00pm17:30pm Bst

Panel: theodora vardouli, Paulo flores, daniel koehler, caMPBell orMe, catherine griffiths, gili ron

15:00 rC9 eVenT X

Students: Yupeng Huang, Ge leng, liuyang Miao.

Design: Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez & Igor Pantic

Technical: Hanjun Kim

Theory: Daria Ricchi

The city centres and the public urban spaces are in constant crisis due to market tensions, the lack of accessibility and high costs. In this context, small communities and artists struggle to find places to celebrate their activities or exhibitions. This situation provokes diminishing the diversity of the sociocultural events that populate the city centres. To counteract this phenomenon, Event X proposes a Mixed Reality app for users to generate their on events. In a hybrid fashion, mixing augmented architecture and physical components to generate flexible and adaptable spaces to celebrate all sorts of events.

VernaCular ConTraCT

Students: Hadi El Kassar, Shiyu tian, Dingsheng Xu

Design: Hadin Charbel and Déborah López Lobato

Technical: Zehao Quin and Vicente Sánchez

Theory: Albert Brenchat - Aguilar

Located in a Ugandan Forest ravaged by ecological threats, a refugee crisis and the remnants of European colonial planning, Vernacular Contract finds the opportunity in creating communal craft settlements that operate on indigenous preservational paradigms. A carbon offsetting scheme is proposed where displaced indigenous participants adopt an “inhabitation as protection” model by relying on a platform that manages the planning and building process of relocation settlements and simplifies contractual elements into game rules. Pragmatic construction systems and vernacular architectures form a language which is individually pleasurable and communally monumental.

16:00 rC5 eduVerse

Students: Dehui tian, Huizhao liu, Jueqiu Gong, Qixuan Huang, Qiyue Huang

Design: Stefan Bassing, Marios Tsiliakos

Technical: JJ Lee, Zehao Qin, Mumin Keser

Theory: Daria Ricchi

Eduverse is an affordable, immersive-gamified metaverse platform dedicated to architectural education. Incentivized by the limited global mobility due to covid-19 and the rising expenses of studying abroad, Eduverse’s goal is to reinvent the study-abroad experience for architecture students. It proposes a globally web connected platform, leveraging metaverse and virtual technologies for enhanced collaborative learning, while utilizing gamification and token systems to spark students’ motivation. Eduverse envisions a fresh, interactive approach to architectural education and more.

16:30 rC7 MyColoofah

Students: Hanshu Jia, Anqi Pei and Arunima Kalra

Design: Richard Beckett , Chris Whiteside

Technical: Juan Cantu, Eleana Polychronaki

Theory: Yota Adilenidou

Operating within the discourse of biodigital design, Loofatecture II addresses contemporary built environment challenges of material resource, and low urban biodiversity. Western-centric obsessions with permeance and sterility has favoured the development of material composites that are resistant to ageing, decay or biological growth through the use of chemical or synthetic agents. These materials are unable to be reused or recycled and as the average lifespans of buildings is reducing, are mostly ending up in land fill. In line with these ecological and material insecurities, the project explores the use of hybrid living materials as low-energy, rapidly renewable building materials. Hybrid composite materials are ‘grown’ together comprising mycelium, loofah and grass roots exploring a more biological, non-permanent architecture. These materials engage with circular material economies which can reduce the impact of architecture and construction on climate challenges. Yet they can also serve as bioreceptive substrates for the secondary growth of photosynthetic organisms that can contribute to carbon reduction and increase biodiversity in cities.

17:00 rC9 MyCMyf

Students: Carl Barrett, nian liu, Ziqing Wei.

Design: Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez & Igor Pantic

Technical: Hanjun Kim

Theory: Daria Ricchi

With the continuous evolution of XR technology, the potential for a merged reality metaverse becomes ever more tangible. The methods of inhabiting these immersive spaces are undergoing a profound transformation, shifting from the creation of entirely virtual realms to integrating virtual media that engages in direct dialogue with the architectural fabric of the physical world. This approach must address physical spaces’ rich historical context, intricate textures, and environmental data profiles. In this context, MyCMyF introduces a procedural method that engages with existing spaces through textures and geometries while also establishing a new interface with a digital ecology that overlays the urban landscape. This endeavour opens up new horizons for the convergence of physical and virtual space, fostering a dynamic and immersive metaverse that intertwines the realms of the real and the digital.

10:30 rCX MaChiya

Students: Adhruv Chadha, Xinyue Zhang, limin Wang, Xin lin

Design: Federico Borello and Cesar Fragachan

Technical: Jianfei Chu

Theory: Alejandro Veliz Reyes

The process of urbanization in London has undergone substantial and ongoing growth, presenting significant challenges within the construction sector, particularly regarding the disparity between housing supply and the escalating demands of residents. This situation is further exacerbated by spatial distribution discrepancies and a pronounced separation between employment opportunities and residential areas.

As a response, the project endeavors to tackle these pressing issues by devising affordable homes tailored to the specific needs of diverse users. MACHIYA proposes the utilization of modular components that can be swiftly manufactured and seamlessly assembled off-site within an industrialized setup. Additionally, a kit-of-parts system has been developed to facilitate mass customization and accommodate various user types, while also allowing for adaptability to different site conditions. These initiatives aim to foster the creation of dynamic and thriving co-living communities.

11:00 rC3 (re)2boT

Students: Yu Chia lin, Yen Chen liu,Janhavi Khairnar, nelisha Mehta, Pichapa

Wipawiwat

Design: Tyson Hosmer, Octavian Gheorghiu, Philipp Siedler

Technical: Ziming He, Baris Erdincer, Panagiotis Tigas

Theory: Jordi Vivaldi Piera

(re)2 BOT is developed as a modular construction system for disaster and refugee relief scenarios that can be assembled, disassembled, and reconfigured by an ecology of large-scale robots. Rather than focusing on temporary short term solutions, the project seeks to provide long term solutions that can be evolved over time from quickly deployable camp settlements into permanent and adaptive communities over a series of stages. (re)2 BOT is developed with lightweight reversible monocoque parts prefabricated with sustainable materials in onsite micro-factories and co-designed with large scale collaborative assembly robots. The project leverages constraint solving computational algorithms and reinforcement learning to generate, construct, expand and reconfigure multifunctional spatial compositions according to the needs of the local refugee community for the present and future.

11:30 rC6 re-ConCreTe

Students: Yue Wang, Zhiyue Wang, Yixuan Yang, Wei Zhang

Design: Christopher Fischlein, Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig

Theory: Ruby Law

Our project address the undifferentiated recycling of concrete waste, and aims to develop methods of achieving full reuse. Using advanced 3D modeling software, we optimised the utilisation of concrete fragments from planned demolitions. These fragments were scanned and compiled into a database for our exploration. Inspired by the dynamic tensegrity system, we pursued a typological approach to assemble the concrete fragments. Practical investigations into nodal connections were conducted to ensure feasibility. Our mission is to revolutionise concrete reuse and establish sustainable recycling practices for a more environmentally conscious future.

12:00 rCX oasis

Students: Hou Io Chan, Meiqian Zhang, Xinyi tian, Yiding Mao, Zihan Xu

Design: Federico Borello and Cesar Fragachan

Technical: Jianfei Chu

Theory: Alejandro Veliz Reyes

The singular purpose of traditional buildings is no longer sufficient to meet the diverse demands of contemporary society.Their lack of flexibility and limited range of functions hinder their ability to adapt to evolving needs.Furthermore, the current prevalent standardised modular construction design fails to acknowledge that users are dynamic entities with evolving requirements, resulting in fragmentation and neglect of their needs. The design of such structures should prioritize adaptability in order to effectively support the evolving lifestyles and habits of their occupants. This project is dedicated to addressing the aforementioned issues by implementing modular design principles that emphasize flexibility, adaptable interfaces, standardized repairs, durability, and personalization. Simultaneously, it promotes sustainability and circularity, ensuring a more environmentally conscious approach.

12:30 rC5 wanderland

Students: Enci Xie, Xuanhao Zhang,Yuting Yan, Ziding Cai

Design: Stefan Bassing, Marios Tsiliakos

Technical: JJ Lee, Zehao Qin, Mumin Keser

Theory: Daria Ricchi

Wanderland is designed to fulfil the needs of the expanding Digital Nomad community. It provides a holistic solution for the unpredictable workspace demands of this emerging group of professionals. Expanding both the digital and physical domains, Wanderland offers an automated tool to optimize workspace allocation by evaluating the co-working hosting spaces. By incorporating 3D printing technology, office equipment is integrated onto mobile robots, adapting to varying daily work requirements in terms of quantity, type, and schedule. The quality of recommendations can be further improved by Real-time assessment through sensory systems on the mobile furniture.

13:00 rC1 MaTerial loCale

Students: Zihan Xiang, Jiaxin Yue, Jun Yue.

Design: Hadin Charbel and Déborah López Lobato

Technical: Zehao Quin and Vicente Sánchez

Theory: Albert Brenchat - Aguilar

Material Locale explores the feasibility of achieving a circular economy for building materials in urban environments. The project seeks to develop a system for recycling existing building materials based on different demolition and reuse methods, measured under the various realities of cost, carbon, machinery, transport etc.. Machine learning and 3D scanning are used for to create a hyper-local material library, the resulting inventory of which is shared on a platform. Additionally, an incentive mechanism based on material currency credit is used for online material transactions between people. Beginning in London, the true ambition is to address the issue of excessive global resource extraction by providing a framework for a systematic approach that can be applied universally in cities around the world through a new carbon credit currency system. As a result of such an approach, responding to material and other constraints could potentially yield a new form of vernacular, displayed through both materiality and assembly logics.

rC1 non-norMaTiVe arChiTeCTure

Students: Jiaying Chu,Kexin li, Mingyuan li

Design: Hadin Charbel and Déborah López Lobato

Technical: Zehao Quin and Vicente Sánchez

Theory: Albert Brenchat - Aguilar

Non-Normative Architecture begins with ‘Helmet House’, a house designed around the averaging of people’s preferences and expectations of a common house in Sweden. The project aims to challenge the limitations of user input, wants and desires as being reduced to a common design, and instead embrace heterogeneity, challenging normative ideas of living in an era of new routines and habits. The Carpenters’ Estate is taken as a case study where residents are under threat of being forcefully relocated by the government under new development plans. Proposing an active form of resistance and self-preservation, Non-Normative architecture evolves as a counter-offer and a platform for negotiation between community members and local authorities. Through material reclamation and quadratic voting residents are enabled to personalise their new houses in a gamified process, satisfying individual and shared needs that challenges current community housing typologies.

15:30 rC3 Co-sPaCe

Students: Hanbei Chen,Fan Jiang,Jiaqi Peng,ling Zhang

Design: Tyson Hosmer, Octavian Gheorghiu, Philipp Siedler

Technical: Ziming He, Baris Erdincer, Panagiotis Tigas

Theory: Jordi Vivaldi Piera

CO-SPACE is a platform providing flexible and continuously adaptive spatial solutions for housing and shared community space for members of cooperative organizations. Co-space is developed as an autonomous living architecture system through the co-design of a collaborative ecology of modular assemble robots and reversible blocks. Inspired by termite mounds and ant construction, modular robots incrementally adapt cave like spaces and assemble into collaborative body plans with passive parts for more complex tasks. The project is developed with an adaptive lifecycle operating over multiple timescales, leveraging a spatial planning and constraint solving algorithm linked to a robotic simulator with reinforcement learning to negotiate multi-user private and shared spatial requirements and modify spaces accordingly. The project considers a continuous coexistence between humans and robots enabling constantly evolving copperative communities to form and reform.

16:00 rC1 Transferring resilienCe

Students: Shuting Huan, Yi Song, Yuhan Xu.

Design: Hadin Charbel and Déborah López Lobato

Technical: Zehao Quin and Vicente Sánchez

Theory: Albert Brenchat - Aguilar

With the change of local climate conditions comes risk of losing local forms of knowledge accrued over generations and an increased pressure on already vulnerable communities. Transferring Resilience aims to decentralise and enable information transfer of traditional knowledge under architectural and ecological terms alike, performing as an archive that can be accessed and adapted by anyone around the world through a process of gamification.

The project takes its initial steps by addressing the pressing issue of landslide disasters in the village of Vent, situated in the remote Ötztal valley of Austria, which poses imminent risk to the town physically as well as its tourism, its primary source of income. By transferring the corresponding traditional skills, such as landslide management and community relocation, the town’s inhabitants both train and execute the various phases of their redevelopment strategy, adjusting the landscape and re-inventing their local architecture.

16:30 rC3 sTigMergiC sPaCes

Students: Huize Qiu,Yuying Xiang,Hansen Ye,Cagla Samci, Ziheng Zhou

Design: Tyson Hosmer, Octavian Gheorghiu, Philipp Siedler

Technical: Ziming He, Baris Erdincer, Panagiotis Tigas

Theory: Jordi Vivaldi Piera

Inspired by the behaviors of social organisms and natural builders such as ants and slime molds, the project is developed as a reversible and reconfigurable collective robotic construction (CRC) system. The project is developed with a bespoke cyberphysical simulation environment leveraging simulated force-feedback, multi-agent collaborative behaviour, a spatial planning algorithm, and reinforcement learning for adaptive architecture with programmable collective intelligence. The project targets dynamic construction environments, complex terrains, and sites with limited accessibility for large scale construction equipment. Through a virtual platform, this system integrates user demands and environmental data to compress the process of design to adaptive construction and migration while using force feedback to maintain dynamic stability during the construction process.

17:00 rC2 eMoboT

Students: Aofan Song, Keke Zhao, Ziheng Chen

Design: Valentina Soana

Technical: Shahram Minooee Sabery

Theory: Provides Ng

EMObot is a shape-changing pneumatic and bending active building system that change state in response to humans’ emotional states. This research focuses on developing a new hybrid system that can transition between states by adjusting air pressure and leveraging the elastic deformations of the materials. The vision behind this project is to establish a soft and dynamic public space where humans can find solace, engage in meditation, exercise, and reconnect. Custom algorithms govern the spatial deformations, influenced by the current emotions and desired states of individuals. Through global and local gradual deformations, EMObot invites humans to experience tranquillity and relaxation, creating diverse shapes and atmospheres tailored to individual needs.

07.07 10:15am13:00pm Bst

Panel: alisa andrasek, Patrik schuMacher, roland snooks, Jelle feringa, Jose sanchez,areti MarkoPoulou, toshikatsu kiuchi, PhiliPPe Morel

10:30 rC8 MulTiMaTerial MiCrohoMes

Students: Praful Pradeep, En Yang, lanxin Yang

Design: Kostas Grigoriadis

Technical: Samuel Esses, Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez

Theory: Ilaria di Carlo

The project aims to revive dead pocket spaces in London. The design process consists of three stages, i.e., material research, micro-home design and robotic additive manufacturing. Regarding the first one, the team explored multi-materiality by synthesizing man-made and organic compounds obtained from landfill sites outside London. The resulting bio-compounds of discarded crustacean animal shells fused with discarded plastics were robotically extruded to generate adaptive micro-home designs. These were inserted in unused pocket spaces across London, in an effort to alleviate the current housing shortage. Post-use, the micro-home materials could be shredded down, and converted into filament for 3D printing new objects and spaces.

10:40 rC9 actiCiti

Students: lihua Feng, Dorsa Hosseinkhani, Peixuan li, Yiyuan Ma .

Design: Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez & Igor Pantic

Technical: Hanjun Kim

Theory: Daria Ricchi

ActiCiti evolutionizes engagement with the built environment through immersive Mixed Reality (MR) experiences. Using a personalized MR platform, users can transform their perception of the physical world by overlaying digital data, unlocking a new level of customization and exploration. Blurring the lines between reality and virtuality, ActiCiti shapes environments and digs into digital materiality. It explores the remarkable potential of AI-generated content to extend the performance of materials in digital overlays, enabling the attainment of object properties that surpass the limits of reality. Users become co-creators, fostering creativity, collaboration, and a deeper connection to urban spaces.

11:20 rC11 CiTies in riVerie

Students: Mansi Kothari, Aveline thomas, lingjun Zhou, Chang He

Design: Julian Besems, Alexander Borrell

Theory: Philippe Morel

Objects play an important role when it comes to being tangible markers to chalk out the story of one’s life. They possess in them, layers of invaluable associations and meanings. Moments, thoughts, actions, decisions, desires, and memories get instilled in them and their very presence evokes compelling responses. When one attempts to read the city through the objects on the streets, they become story-telling devices and represent a collective repository of shared values and experiences.

Without using metaphors, the objects that populate the city reveal much about its character and people. The project aims to explore the language of objects in Istanbul and their significance to the city’s cultural heritage and celebrate the memory and culture of Istanbul by incorporating these objects into design.

11:30 rC18 urban sTiMuli

Students: Mengxue Du, Pramod Vikram Balaji, tianqi lin, Yanli li

Design: Enriqueta Llabres-Valls, Zachary Flucker

Theory: William Huang

The evolving global coffee culture has made a massive leap in the coffee industry and established a targeted consumer market globally. The demand for coffee from different geographical locations indirectly adds production pressure in the tropical regions of the globe, which leads to the spatial expansion of the coffee plantations to the detriment of tropical forests. The market leader, Starbucks Corporation, has significantly impacted the coffee belt with the introduction of the Arabica coffee bean worldwide. Urban Stimuli is a planetary-level urban design project that engages Starbucks Corporation to provide an alternative solution to the global coffee supply chain. The project uses evolutionary design theories to propose an artificial coffee plantation that will grow and adapt to the Manhattan conditions in New York.

12:10 rCX hiVe

Students: Hussein Zaarour, Arjun Kapoor, Yang Wu, Ruihan Chang, lei taishan

Design: Federico Borello and Cesar Fragachan

Technical: Jianfei Chu

Theory: Alejandro Veliz Reyes

The objective of this project is to enhance community empowerment by promoting a more equitable and inclusive housing process, encompassing design, supply, and delivery. This initiative builds upon existing research and extends its influence through the implementation of a platform-based solution that revolutionizes the approach to housing design, construction, and occupancy. This transformative platform ensures accessibility to a broader audience regardless of their geographical location, enabling users to create and personalize their living spaces while staying informed about the production processes. HIVE is dedicated to advocating sustainable and innovative solutions for diverse communities’ housing needs, encouraging users to take ownership of their individual habitats, fostering greater agency and participation, promoting social equity and facilitating economic mobility.

12:20 rC5 aurora

Students: Chen liang, Diba Baghernejad, Haojin Qin, Shiyu liu, Shiyuan liu

Design: Stefan Bassing, Marios Tsiliakos

Technical: JJ Lee, Zehao Qin, Calin Craiu

Theory: Daria Ricchi

Aurora offers an innovative housing solution, tailored to empower the younger urban generation facing financial obstacles when it comes to homeownership. Harnessing the capabilities of 3D printing technology, Aurora offers adaptable and modular living spaces that cater to individual needs and preferences. Its dynamic design facilitates effortless expansion or downsizing according to the evolving lifestyle of its residents. This novel housing concept attempts to rethink the way we design, construct, and assemble homes, ultimately enhancing the quality of urban living.

Students: AYA MESKAWI, VAISHnAVI MoRE, KEXIn WAnG, XIAnGYI tIAn

Design: Valentina Soana

Technical: Shahram Minooee Sabery

Theory: Provides Ng

A dance of other bodies is a robotic bending active pneumatic hybrid (BAPH) architectural system that generates music. The system consists of robotically actuated bending rods and pneumatic elastic surfaces that can change shape in response to a dancer’s movements, while generating sounds based on their deformations. This concept introduces a new perspective on performance spaces, where the architecture itself becomes a performer. This approach gives rise to a dynamic relationship between the human and architectural performers, as well as the viewers, resulting in a new immersive experience for the audience.

noW 2

07.07 14:30pm18:00pm Bst

Panel: karolin schMidBaur,alisa andrasek, sung ho kiM,Patrik schuMacher, Jelle feringa,theo sPyroPoulos,

PhiliPPe Morel,andreW Witt, daniel koehler

14:30 rC15 PosT-digiTal ProXeMiCs

Students: Siyi Huang, naixiang Gao, Xinjie Zhu

Design: Annarita Papeschi, Ilaria Di Carlo, Soungmin Yu

Theory: Ilaria Di Carlo

The project explores the experiential process of food consumption in urban context, with a particular focus on street markets. Taking Borough Market as a case study, the project seeks to identify the visual and olfactory rules behind the rich food experience on offer, exploring the role of fluctuating perceptions and emotive responses to proxemic behaviour, with methods that intersect situated sensing, behavioural simulation, and social media analysis. The results form a visual and formal archive that customised via machine learning is redeployed in new contexts. The final proposal explores the making of an augmented experience for Lloyd Park, in East London, where the collective enhanced aesthetic experiences become the mean for creating contextual links to the site.

14:40 rC3 re-sPaCe

Students: Yuechuan Jin,Yaosheng tang,Yongye Xie,Weiheng Zhao

Design: Tyson Hosmer, Octavian Gheorghiu, Philipp Siedler

Technical: Ziming He, Baris Erdincer, Panagiotis Tigas

Theory: Jordi Vivaldi Piera

RE-SPACE is an autonomously adaptive reuse project that incorporates robotic building systems to reactivate derelict buildings for emergent formation of incubator communities. The project is developed as a continuously adaptive collective robotic construction system (CRC) with collaboration between three types of simple relative robots with low degrees of freedom (a free moving robotic arm, horizontal wheel robot, and track sliding robot) and modular blocks with magnets, tracks, and a reversible locking system. A user platform enables multiple users to input individual and shared spatial requirements and an agent-based spatial planner algorithm is being developed to autonomously negotiate and adapt space planning accordingly. Spatial adjustments communicated to the robotic system. A cyber-physical simulation system has been developed with integrated pathfinding and collaborative behaviour for various complex assembly tasks to be trained with reinforcement learning for efficient reconfiguration sequencing to adapt spatial layouts to the multi-user requirements.

15:20 rC16 PeaTland resToraTion

Students: Jecci Chen, napapa Soonjan, Yuanhao Wei, Rock Zheng

Design: Claudia Pasquero, Filippo Nassetti

Theory: Emmanouil Zaroukas

Peatland Restoration Organisation project challenges the traditional concept of Urban and proposes a Collective Living scenario in Indonesian peatland.

Peatland is one of the most significant biomes due to its role in the dynamic carbon cycle. However, in Indonesia, it has been a victim in the climate crisis as peatlands are facing both annual floods and peat fires in wet and dry seasons.

The project employs artificial intelligence, biological intelligence, and computer technology to construct a spatial design. The utilisation of local materials combined with mycelium and local wisdom of weaving on the site brings a new approach to urban development based on the stabilisation of the peatland environment. The design organisation creates a Collective Living scenario, where there is no distinction between society and nature, human and non-human.

15:30 rC6 aCiXTy_one

Students: Warisa Chaisutyakorn, Andres Cordova Cahuenas, nour Shalaby, tereza Zivotska

Design: Christopher Fischlein, Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig

Theory: Ruby Law

Air pollution poses a major threat to human health, with PM 2.5 particles being particularly worrisome due to their ability to penetrate deep into the respiratory system. This project explores the potential of Activated Carbon as a material to adsorb PM2.5 in urban areas. By combining Activated Carbon with bio-plastic, a new composite material has been created that is printable, malleable, and recyclable. Extensive research on material properties and fabrication techniques has resulted in an optimized approach that combines 3D printing and scraping. The project aims to develop a prototype breathing pod for the polluted London Underground Station, offering a solution to the urgent problem of air pollution and promoting sustainable urban environments.

16:10 RC12 inteR-sCale

Students: Yuxian Chen, Qinni Ge, Jing Cao, Yiqi Ji

Design: Luke Pearson, Sandra Youkhana

Theory: James Delaney

This game demonstrates how design decisions produce global impacts, affecting how we work towards a sustainable future. Players engage with a series of cities facing critical environmental issues, including London, Manila, and Chongqing, responding to air, water, and land contamination. Through a multi-scalar ‘long zoom’ game structure, the player navigates back and forth between molecular, urban, and planetary scales to instigate changes at one level that have consequences on the other.

By greening the molecular structures of concrete particles, opting for natural ventilation strategies in cities, and reducing plastic waste, player are given design agency to explore the city’s future impact on the environment at both the macro and micro, discovering how sustainability strategies create different impacts on climate, space and time.

16:20 rC1 fluX loT

Students: Xueqing li ,Shikun tang, Wanting Xu.

Design: Hadin Charbel and Déborah López Lobato

Technical: Zehao Quin and Vicente Sánchez

Theory: Albert Brenchat - Aguilar

The project begins by exploring the political implications of the numerous informal structures in urban areas. In the context of capital-driven development, these structures reflect people’s spontaneous desire and imagination to modify common space. FluxLot is a system designed to address such desires, derived from studying allotments; a vernacular typology of community gardens in the UK that provides an alternative to privatised land ownership. Abandoned industrial spaces are selected as sites and aim to propose new possibilities in urban development that feature gardening and community activities.

By combining digital platforms with physical instruments, Flux-Lot strives to achieve maximum flexibility in planning and building while also promoting community-based DIY through collective decision-making. Functioning as both a planner and a construction consultant, the digital platform evolves along with all architectural components on site and collects user input as the basis for future adjustments.

17:00 rC14 aCCenT fusion

Students: Yiwen Qian, Yiheng Xu, Xuming Cai, Muskaan Mardia

Design: Roberto Bottazzi, Tasos Varoudis, Eirini Tsouknida

Theory: Provides Ng

When looking at a city, looking at people and their behaviour is imperative. Journeying through all the senses and exploring belonging in diverse cultures is essential when designing cities. With the increase in immigration, London has become super diverse. With it comes linguistic diversity.

Rapid urbanization has made London an essential part of its resident identity. These cities are a fusion of different cultures and identities, such as race, gender, religion, linguistic diversity, and age, all experiencing their sense of belonging. How to create a space in the design space that affects people’s sense of belonging to a certain extent is the main problem that ‘Accent Fusion’ tries to research and solve.

17:10 rC7 bioColony

Students: Kun Chen, Key Hu, Xuran Xiao, Yuxiao Huo

Design: Richard Beckett , Chris Whiteside

Technical: Juan Cantu, Eleana Polychronaki

Theory: Yota Adilenidou

BioColony explores architecture as an assembly of biologically active materials, matters and spatial ecologies curating live-work-gardening typologies as a series of entanglements of species, genes and timescales. Building on the previous bio-receptive design approaches developed in RC7, we are looking beyond solely the material condition and instead looking to define new ways to plan building strategies to integrate living matter and ecologies into architecture. The project develops a design methodology using ML models trained on environmental data sets and a proposed platform tool that enables site specific environmental information to be embedded into any given structure, thus optimising building mass and form for maximal growth of natural diversity. The typology becomes an inhabitable urban landscape of unruly territories that embraces ecological concepts of ageing, erosion and decay as a fundamental paradigm of resilience. Taxonomies of ecological parts are assembled using environmentally driven ML models to imagine how buildings as ‘biocolonies’ can serve as an ecosystem service for health.