The Bartlett B-Pro Show Book 2018

The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL B-Pro Show 2018

Image: B-Pro Show 2017

Contents 6 Introduction

Frédéric Migayrou, Bob Sheil Architectural Design MArch Research Cluster 1 Autonomous Architecture Research Cluster 2 Cross-Scale Design: The Amphibious Laboratory Research Cluster 3 Living Architecture Design Computation Lab Research Cluster 4 Elementary Particles – Autonomous Habitats Material Architecture Lab Research Clusters 5 & 6 An Introduction to the Digital Manual BiotA Lab Research Cluster 7 Bio-Computational Materiality Research Cluster 8 The Imminent Reality of Multi-Materiality Research Cluster 9 Augmented (Design and Fabricate through Augmentation)

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Urban Design MArch Research Cluster 11 Anthropogenic Topographies Research Cluster 12 Videogame Urbanism: Playing the Metropolis of Tomorrow Research Cluster 14 Big Data City: Machine Thinking Urbanism Urban Morphogenesis Lab Research Cluster 16 On the Origin of the Inhuman City Research Cluster 17 Large City Architecture: The Fourth Part Research Cluster 18 Bridging Across Mass Customisation

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172 Architectural Computation MSc/MRes 186 B-Pro Staff Biographies 194 Staff, Visitors & Consultants 197 Our Programmes 199 Events and Exhibitions 200 Alumni 202 Short Courses 5

Image: B-Pro Show 2017

Introduction

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Professor Frédéric Migayrou Chair, Bartlett Professor of Architecture Director of B-Pro Andrew Porter Deputy Director of B-Pro B-Pro, or Bartlett Prospective, is a suite of graduate programmes devoted to advanced experimentation in computational architecture, design and urban environments: Architectural Design MArch, Urban Design MArch, Architectural Computation MSc/MRes and Architecture & Digital Theory MRes. Architectural Design MArch explores the most advanced experimental research in design and fabrication. Urban Design MArch takes critical approaches towards creative urban and landscape design, defining creative strategies for global cities and communities. Last year these were joined by our Architectural Computation MSc and MRes programmes, which engage with and advance the main technologies by which tomorrow’s architecture will be designed and constructed.

The B-Pro programmes welcome a diverse international student cohort, offering highly structured access to the realisation and application of research, and to the production of new schemes of conception and construction in architecture and urbanism. Throughout the year, we host numerous seminars, workshops, lectures and public events, such as the Prospectives and Plexus series, to share these ideas and promote collaboration, discussion and inspiration.

Architectural Design, directed by Gilles Retsin, is organised around research clusters driven by their respective tutors, including three labs – Design Computation Lab, Material Architecture Lab and BiotA Lab – to target specific speculative and prospective fields and domains of application. The latest technologies – robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), CNC fabrication, 3D printing, supercomputing, simulation, generative design, interactivity, advanced algorithms, extensive material prototyping, biotechnologies, and links to 8

material science – and their many applications, are researched in great depth. The exploration of supercomputing and software packages such as Maya, Grasshopper, Arduino, Processing, Houdini, Unity and other generative platforms, also forms a core part of our innovative approach to conception and fabrication, enabled by our exceptional digital production facilities.

With extensive use of AI and of simulation in virtual reality, the course offers new fields for experimental research and generative design.

Urban Design, directed by Roberto Bottazzi, looks at creative approaches towards environments and cities at all scales, in particular innovative computational design, biotechnologies, artificial intelligence, and digital approaches of networks and territories.

The research clusters and the programme’s lab, Urban Morphogenesis Lab, develop alternative proposals and models, based on new morphological concepts and protocols, which reflected how cities are complex, dynamic living systems. Critical environmental and ecological questions are also viewed through an interdisciplinary lens, embracing fields such as archaeology, anthropology, ecological history, advanced computing, law, media, philosophy, planning and politics; thereby acknowledging the dispersed and often paradoxical nature of contemporary urbanism.

Through contextual case studies and interventions, students address the challenges involved in resolving complex issues facing populations, public space, building typologies and land use.

A diverse array of projects carried out by students on our Architectural Computation programmes, directed by Manuel Jiménez Garcia, challenge the boundaries of what architectural computation can achieve.

Projects explore computational methods for automated construction, augmented reality applications for the built environment, and use artificial intelligence for space navigation and

Introduction

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.

This year’s B-Pro Show and accompanying book are testament to the depth, quality and intensity of The Bartlett’s creative vision and those who guide it. As ever, they also showcase the commitment, passion and ingenuity of our dedicated students.

Professor Bob Sheil Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture Our B-Pro programmes are immensely important to the school, and this importance is growing. They are important because they are melting pots, where embryonic experimentation meets rigorous research and theoretical contextualisation. They are important because they have introduced a new stream of staff into the school who are contributing to our overall research and teaching culture. They are also important, of course, as they attract talented applicants from all over the world who seek out the culture to experiment that our school is renowned for and thrives on. It is a privilege to be a witness to their progression and as time goes by, the immense success of graduates who are establishing inspiring new forms of practice in every corner of the globe.

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pattern generation. The work of this group demonstrates the possibility of becoming truly fluent in computational language, opening new domains for research.

We were honoured to be publicly recognised for our work in computation last year, when B-Pro received the 2017 ACADIA Innovative Academic Programme Award of Excellence. The award, presented by international colleagues, celebrates our consistent contributions to, and impact on, the field of architectural computing.

The Bartlett International Lecture Series – with numerous speakers, architects, historians and theoreticians, sponsored by Fletcher Priest Architects – continued to present new opportunities for students to encounter fresh takes on emerging research.

This year, B-Pro programmes were further enhanced by collaboration with the new Architecture & Digital Theory MRes, co-directed

by Frédéric Migayrou and Professor Mario Carpo, dedicated to the theory, history and criticism of digital design and digital fabrication.

We also look forward to supporting PhD research in this exciting arena. B-Pro will be joined in 2018-19 by two new Master’s degrees, Bio-Integrated Design MArch and MSc, led by Professor Marcos Cruz and taught in collaboration with UCL’s Biochemical Engineering Department. Students are already benefitting from access to opportunities for computational research and fabrication offered by our vast new studio and workshop space at Here East in London’s Olympic Park. B-Pro, entirely devoted to creative design, will become even more of a nexus of stimulating exchanges between history and theory, design and technology.

Through a shared vision of creative architecture, B-Pro is an opportunity for students to participate in a new community and to affirm the singularity of their individual talents. These programmes are not only an open door to advanced architectural practice

Image: B-Pro Show 2017

Architectural Design MArch

Architectural Design MArch Programme Director: Gilles Retsin

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Architectural Design is invested in the frontiers of advanced architecture and design and its convergence with science and technology.

Composed of an international body of experts and students, this programme is designed to deliver diverse yet focused strands of speculative research, emphasising the key role computation plays within complex design synthesis.

Design is increasingly recognised as a crucial agency for uncovering complex patterns and relations, and this has never been more important. Historically, the most successful architecture has managed to capture cultural conditions, utilise technological advancements and answer to the pressures and constraints of materials, economics, ecology and politics.

This synthesis is now being accelerated by the introduction of computation and the everevolving landscape of production. Architectural Design students are introduced to advanced coding, fabrication and robotic skills, aimed at computational and technological fluency.

Simultaneously, they are exposed to theoretical underpinnings specifically tailored to their enquiries. Students are part of a vibrant urban and professional community, enriching the process of learning and opportunities for networking.

Placing advanced design at its core, the Architectural Design programme devotes a high proportion of its time to studio-based design enquiry, culminating in a major project and thesis. The programme is organised into research clusters, each with their own research agendas, underpinned by the shared resources of technical tutorials, and theoretical lectures and seminars. The latest approaches to robotics and artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing, supercomputing, simulation, generative design, interactivity, extensive material prototyping and links to material science are explored. We engage critically with new developments in technology, which are rapidly changing the landscape of architecture, 10

its social and economic role and its effectiveness in industry applications.

Students are introduced to theoretical concepts through lectures and introductory design projects, supported by computational and robotics skills-building workshops.

Throughout the year, students work in small teams or individually, according to the methodology of each research cluster, amplifying their focus and individual talents in the context of complex design research and project development.

Projects are continuously evaluated via tutorials, with regular design reviews by external critics.

Alongside our cutting-edge research, we host public lectures and seminars throughout the year.

Jia Fengze, Jia Hui, Yixian Li, Weizhe Wang (Research Cluster 4), ‘Robotic Meta-Materials’ (2018)

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Research Cluster 1

Autonomous Architecture

Student teams Metabranch Qian Bu, Anastasiia Bushkova, Yiwen He, Yixuan Mei Data Tectonics Virginia Giagkou, Sisi Li, Georgios Plakotaris, Zihan Yu, Jinjin Zhao Architectural Prosthesis Qingxi Lin, Peiqi Xu, Wei Yi Zhang, Yafan Zhang

Research Cluster 1 explores automated and autonomous systems to discover new architectural design and construction processes. The boundaries between digital and physical have started disappearing with the emergence of cyber-physical systems such as autonomous vehicles, industrial robots, drones, 3D printers and scanners. As the world becomes a more connected, efficient and yet complex place, humans are learning to think like machines and machines are gaining more human capabilities.

This cross-evolution is radically changing the role of the architect.

Research Cluster 1 aims to create autonomous systems that can adapt to complex prototypical architectural scenarios. We focus on designing systems that can self-generate efficient architectural structures using artificial intelligence. This year we present three projects that are tackling questions of automation and adaptation for the design and fabrication of proto-architectural structures.

The ‘Metabranch’ project explores generative branching systems to create forms that are optimised for structural efficiency as well as taking into account various fabrication constraints. Generated forms are 3D printed and reinforced with concrete, resulting in composite architectural forms that are tested at different scales. ‘Architectural Prosthesis’ creates a light, adaptable and highly efficient structural system through the use of iterative structural optimisation, which is adaptive to complex prototypical architectural scenarios. In the ‘Data - tectonics’ project, cellular automata contribute to the fulfilment of design purposes and objectives as a generative tool. First, cellular automata are used as a means to configure the identity of the space between the landscape and the upper surfaces by defining structural, inactive and architectural, active spaces. The goal of the system is to generate structures, simultaneously configuring spaces that are walked in and inhabited by people.

Theory tutor Alexandros Kallegias The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Critic Andy Lomas Partners Ai Build, Formfutura

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Daghan Cam, Davide Quayola, Martina Rosati

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1.3 Figs. 1.1 – 1.5 Metabranch Creating a design system that can automatically generate adaptive form and structure for any given context. Inspired by the adaptation, distribution and complexity of natural branching, the system takes the branch as a basic design language. The given architectural contexts consist of different combinations of two surfaces. Instead of using traditional design methods, a databased system was generated to first extract information from these given surfaces and then autonomously create a structure according to the analysed results. 3D printing technology enabled the construction of flexible hollow branch forms, while concrete inside some parts helps to enhance their structural strength.

The system can be adapted to real environments by using topographical as well as environmental data.

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1.7 Figs. 1.6 – 1.8 Data Tectonics By making use of the latest promoting the collaboration of robots with humans through a technological advances, the project exploits data by analysing semi-automated rationale. and adapting it for a design system characterised by autonomy in spatial performance and automation in assembly mode.

The focus is on outlining frameworks that can self-produce effective design structures, utilising techniques from the rising field of data science. Rocky landscapes, loaded with rich geometric information because of their multifaceted nature, are half-habitat. Therefore, a metal structure is proposed with observatories and spaces that can be inhabited. This architectural composition is characterised by autonomy and, at the same time, poses new perspectives for the design sector as it adopts spatial data and is formed accordingly.

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Figs. 1.9 – 1.12 Architectural Prosthesis This project explores a variety of light and highly efficient structural systems which can adapt to complex prototypical architectural scenarios. Based on data analysis and deformation tests run off the original scenario and structure, the project generates a new structure at the zones with high deformation value, according to necessity. The system first defines the scaffold lines of the whole structure. Only once the formation of scaffold lines is accomplished can the formation of the final structure begin, through a process of iterative simulation.

All the components of the structure are maximally reduced to ensure an efficient use of material, adaptive to specific circumstances, thus creating a light structural system. This principle could be achieved by robotically weaving a series

of fibre filaments. Architectural Prosthesis offers a new technique for reinforcing old or destroyed buildings. It acts as an intervention, to self-organise a supporting ‘prosthesis’ with light materials and new functions.

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Research Cluster 2

Cross-Scale Design: The Amphibious Laboratory

Students Maram AlSubaie, Yi He, Qi Jiang, Ye Kong, Xiang Li, Yibin Li, Yongjin Zhang

Research Cluster 2’s experimental research is focused on cross-scale design. Our original strategic approach expands the effective design range, to engage with multi-objective, complex questions, conditions and contexts; utilising non-linear, scale-specific relations. Cross-scale relations are processes at one spatial or temporal scale interacting with processes at another scale, resulting in non-linear dynamics. These interactions effect, alter or promote the relationships between processes and patterns across scales: small-scale processes that can influence a broad spatial extent or a long time period, or large-scale conditions that can interact with small-scale processes to curate complex system dynamics.

This year, we focused on the development of novel interfaces between the built environment and water systems. We developed and fine-tuned a selection of project-specific design techniques: a repertoire of generative, computational, data and matter-based methods for design, materialisation and industrial production.

The proposed strategy introduces a radical shift, substituting the design and production of finite-state outputs with the design of dynamic multi-scale and multi-objective structures and systems. These have the capacity not only for direct adaptive responsiveness, they also enable developmental capacity during their lifecycles, through partial reconfiguration based on continuous additive, substitutional, metamorphic and subtractive processes. They offer evolutionary potential through the course of multiple developmental generations. The approach redefines the traditional separation between the design process, construction and lifecycle and promotes this autonomous behavioural design control by establishing a relationship between the encoded behaviours and contextual fluctuation.

Additive, subtractive, substitutional and metamorphic methods are implemented to investigate the relations at the operational scale of a building as well as through the relations within and between its super- and sub-systems. Through dynamic, generative and analytical design techniques, we have simulated and studied the dynamics of change and parallel multi-objective design. The resulting projects engage with programmatic evolution, structural re-formation, resource fluctuations and with the material, economic, geological and climatic processes that impact and continuously affect the built environment.

Theory Tutor Tomaz Pipan

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Critics Ana Abram, Richard Beckett, Roberto Bottazzi, Bradley Cantrell, Daniel Koehler, Tom Kovac, Frédéric Migayrou, Claudia Pasquero, Andrew Porter, Gilles Retsin

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2.8 Figs. 2.1 – 2.9 Cross-Scale Design Structures Figs. 2.1 – 2.4 Fig. 2.9 Qi Jiang, Yibin Li Detail. Multi-scale constituentXiang Li, Maram Al Subaie, Yongjin Zhang Fig. 2.1 Continuous based structure and differential growth. fibre-reinforced concrete structure, made from discrete woven constituents with articulated local accretion. Fig. 2.2 Discrete woven building constituent, with articulated local accretion and differentiated directional porosity. Fig. 2.3 Growth/accretion distribution on the woven structure. Fig. 2.4 Detail of a selective multi-scale accretion, distributed on the woven structure. Fig. 2.5 Qi Jiang, Yibin Li Top view composition – directional multi-scale porosity. Fig. 2.6 Kong Ye, He Yi Physical model. Articulation of the multi-scale building constituents. Fig. 2.7 Yibin Li, Qi Jiang Multi-scale structure.

Fig. 2.8 Kong Ye, He Yi Library of multi-scale building constituents – density, differentiation, articulation, porosity.

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Research Cluster 3

Living Architecture

Student teams TetraBOTS Mohamad Al Chawa, Chun-Yen Chen, Xiaoyu Wu TARSS Linlin Cao, Ziming He, Shi Ren, Ning Wang GameColony Hongyou Li, Danyang Zhang, Jialin Zhang ArchiGO Yekta Abolghasem Tehrani, Nour Alkhaja, Shahrzad Fereidouni, Jelena Peljevic

‘The role of the architect here, I think, is not so much to design a building or city as to catalyse them; to act that they may evolve. That is the secret of the great architect.’ Gordon Pask1

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Theory Tutor Jordi Vivaldi Piera Machine Learning Tutor Panagiotis Tigas Robotics Consultant Arthur Prior Critics Andy Bow, Peter Cook, Mario Carpo, Winy Maas, Areti Markopoulou, Frédéric Migayrou, Philippe Morel, Yael Reisner, Patrik Schumacher, Theodore Spyropoulos, Martha Tsigkari, Georg Vrachliotis, Liam Young

Octavian Gheorghiu, Tyson Hosmer, David Reeves

Research Cluster 3 interrogates the notion of ‘living architecture’ as a coupling of living systems with the assembly and formation of architecture.

Our research focuses on developing experimental design models with the ability to self-organise, self-assess, and self-improve using machine learning methods. It seeks to embed local adaptability directly into the design process by training our models to learn to adjust and reconfigure to unforeseen and changing needs and conditions. One thread of the research focuses on physical reconfiguration, enabled through autonomous robotic assembly systems that are tuned and trained in digital simulation environments. Another thread focuses on design models that apply artificial intelligence to spatial organisation, to improve at solving multiobjective architectural problems. Rather than treating the elements of architecture as layers that are optimised separately, this model improves at negotiating between multiple potentially changing objectives by itself, through the configuration and assembly of simple parts.

This year each team developed an intelligent design model within the scope of these two research threads. Each project utilised a set of simple parts that could be connected and reconfigured into larger, more complex assemblies. A direct link was maintained between simple geometric element data, and fabrication and assembly strategies. We developed methods of analysis for multiple performance objectives, such as structural performance, spatial connectivity, density, and other quantitative metrics. Using reinforcement learning, the design models were trained within their own constraints to improve at mobility, adaptation, and assembly, to negotiate between these objectives and generate robust spatial configurations.

Amidst growing pressures of overpopulation and the environmental degradation of planet Earth, the studio focused the application of the research on proposals for autonomous and intelligent design systems for Mars colonisation. We developed strategies for spatial planning, fabrication and reconfiguration within the Mars context. Each team speculated on new forms of living and structuring human environments which respond and adapt to the dynamic environment on Mars.

1. Gordon Pask in John Frazer, 1995, An Evolutionary Architecture (London: Architectural Association), p.7 26

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3.3 Fig. 3.1 Linlin Cao, Ning Wang ‘3D Game of Life growth models’. Figs. 3.2 – 3.5 TARSS Fig. 3.2 The walking process of a tensegrity robot. Fig. 3.3 Training the robot in machine learning. The robots were trained using reinforcement learning to improve mobility and dynamic stability. In this example, the robots are trying to maintain collective stability while extending vertically. Fig. 3.4 Aerial view of spatial aggregation in Mars environment. Fig. 3.5 Autonomous tensegrity robot prototype. The robot is composed of six rigid members and 24 tensile members that can be actuated to decrease and increase their length, allowing the units to move, connect and reconfigure autonomously.

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3.8 Figs. 3.6 – 3.9 ArchiGO Fig. 3.6 An array of spatial configurations generated through constraint solving algorithm, along with machine learning training, for optimisation against various global criteria. Fig. 3.7 Sectional view of interiors of spatial parts assembled to generate larger habitable spaces. Fig. 3.8 The user interface, showcasing various aspects of the qualities and performance of an assemblage. Graph representations from top to bottom: 1 – force analysis, 2 – torque analysis, 3 – density analysis. Fig. 3.9 Assemblages generated through the training process of a machine learning agent against multiple criteria.

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3.11 Figs. 3.10 – 3.13 TetraBOTS Fig. 3.10 Perspective drawing of living architecture on Mars. Fig. 3.11 Physical robotic prototypes, collective transformations achieved over time while maintaining stability. Fig. 3.12 Tetrahedron graph growth. Based on the signed distance function, the growing tetrahedrons pick positions by following the given vector point in the field. The gap-filling function is used to control the growing process. It checks the gap between the neighbour tetrahedrons and decides whether to fill it, through comparing the gap angles with a set value. Fig. 3.13 Physical model fabrication involves the joints’ design and material study.

To improve the structural stability of fabrication models and retain the flexibility of strike joints, the team tested 3D-printed joints and steel wires, and decided to use a tenon joint.

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3.15 Figs. 3.14 – 3.17 GameColony Fig. 3.14 A multi-player game interface. The city requires a virtual top-down and bottom-up game system to collect players’ decisions and coordinate negotiations through game theory. Fig. 3.15 The growth process of the colony. The continuous organisation and reorganisation of the colony updates with local form change.

Examples of interior spatial conditions resulting from aggregation behaviours driven by the game. Fig. 3.16 Top view of the colony showing the arrangement of different spaces.

Fig. 3.17 Close-up image of high density aggegration.

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Design Computation Lab Lab Directors: Mollie Claypool, Manuel Jiménez Garcia, Gilles Retsin, Vicente Soler

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Design Computation Lab develops design methods for the utilisation of computational technologies in architectural design, fabrication and assembly.

Despite the use of computers to calculate enormous amounts of complexity, the way we build is still analogue, and therefore our increasing computational power is used in a representational way. The term ‘digital fabrication’ is misleading as well: 3D printing is an analogue process, similar to the way the CNC mill automates an artisanal action. Increased computational power is therefore used for pure representation or shape generation, rather than generating an alternative to the way we have traditionally approached physical production.

We believe architecture should be wholly digital – from the scale of the micron and particle to the brick, beam and building – both as a design process and as a physical artefact.

Thinking about architecture in a digital way means that we have to think about every element, part or particle as a bit of data that can be computed. Parts therefore take on the properties of a ‘bit’, becoming serialised, standardised and embedded with a simple rule: 0 or 1 (or, connected or not connected). The emphasis on the part as a unit reintroduces the age-old disciplinary notion of part-to-whole relationships, embodying a fundamental shift in architecture and design thinking that is unique to our research and projects, aiming to close gaps between the way we design, fabricate and assemble objects, buildings and even infrastructure. This enables us, as architects and designers, to think evocatively and creatively about the way in which we engage with other disciplines, industries and professions, including robotics, construction, computer science, manufacturing, policymaking and the material sciences.

The lab includes both groups from Architectural Design MArch and from Architecture MArch (ARB/RIBA Part 2), cross-pollinating across the research-orientated thinking of Research 36

Cluster 4 in Architectural Design MArch and building design-orientated thinking of Unit 19 in Architecture MArch. This structure enables us to be holistic and innovative in our thinking.

We have cross-faculty partnerships with UCL’s Institute for Digital Innovation in the Built Environment and The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, in Strategic Project Management MSc.

‘Robotic 3D-Printed Chaise-Longue’, 2017. Designed by staff members Manuel Jimenez Garcia and Gilles Retsin, fabricated at Nagami with the support of Vicente Soler. Developed with funding from the Autodesk Emerging Research Award, as part of the Design Computation Lab’s work on spatial 3D printing.

Research Cluster 4

Design Computation Lab Elementary Particles – Autonomous Habitats Gilles Retsin, Manuel Jiménez Garcia, Vicente Soler

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Student teams PizzaBot Mengyu Huang, Dafni Katrakalidi, Martha Masli, Man Nguyen, Wenji Wang Robotic MetaMaterials Fengze Jia, Hui Jia, Yixian Li, Wenji Wang Augmented Sheets Yuanfu Lian, Chao Shen, Hongyu Zhang, Guoqiang Zou RawBot Christos Chatzakis, Marina Dimopoulou, Hsieh Han Hsun, Ngai Wu ClickPipes Chen Liang, Miao Lu, Linsi Tao, Yujianghang Zhou Theory Tutor Mollie Claypool Critics Peter Cook, Jelle Feringa, Areti Markopoulou, Philippe Morel, Claudia Pasquero, Yael Reisner, Patrik Schumacher, Theo Spyropoulos, Georg Vrachliotis

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Continuing our research into a discrete paradigm for design and production, this year Research Cluster 4 focused on developing elementary building blocks for automated housing. The cluster took inspiration from models such as the open-source WikiHouse, which is of a radical simplicity, using only one material and one machine for the entire production chain.

Of equal interest was Ensamble Studio’s Cyclopean House, which is constructed out of prefabricated foam beams, with a low budget and in an extremely short time. Students privileged pragmatic concerns and simple materials to develop efficient, automated production chains. The research suggests that automation is primarily a design problem, not a problem of robots. Taking a critical position towards the omnipresent industrial robot, students were encouraged to think critically about what building automation means for architecture. This responds to the larger debate that the cluster has advanced over the past few years about the nature of the digital in architecture, and specifically digital fabrication.

Research Cluster 4 is interested in rethinking a digital architecture, both in terms of design, production and economy. Building upon ideas around digital materials, modularity and discrete assembly, students are challenged to develop elementary parts – or rather particles – that can be assembled in an automated way. By redefining the elementary parts of building blocks of architecture, students also engage with the fundamental aspects of architecture through its part-to-whole relations.

Team M4G developed an approach where the building block and assembling robot have the same geometry. The ‘PizzaBot’ is a distributed robot that takes the shape of a simple box, made out of sheet materials.

Team ViVi developed an approach for robotically assembled metamaterials – building blocks that have the same material but a different behaviour.

Team N4 developed an approach based on sheet materials that can be assembled using augmented reality with the Hololens. A similar questioning of robotic tools can be seen in the ‘RawBot’ project, which is based on the assembly of raw materials using a simple augmented reality app on an iPhone. Team F4 developed a simple, pipe-like plastic building block that can be quickly assembled into a variety of structures.

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Fig. 4.1 RawBot This project explores an approach to automation that focuses on cheap, abundant materials and minimal infrastructure. A custom-developed smartphone app uses augmented reality to produce all the necessary instructions for untrained workers to assemble complex bamboo structures.

Figs. 4.2 – 4.6 Pizzabot Figs. 4.2 – 4.3 Pizzabot proposes a relative robot that has the same geometry as the elements it assembles. A relative robot can be understood as a robot that doesn’t have a fixed working area but basically moves along with the structures that it creates. The project started out with the incentive to make the simplest possible robot, which lead to the question: ‘can a pizza box be a robot?’ Using a simple, one-axis movement, the box-shaped robot can move and pick up a passive building element with an identitical

geometry. Fig. 4.4 The geometries of both the active robot and the passive building element are the same, which enables efficient communication between both. The pizzabot can use already-assembled building elements as paths to climb the structure. At the same time, one pizzabot can combine with another one into a more complex, multi-axis robot, which is capabable of solving more difficult assembly problems.

This diagram shows the assembly of a portal frame with two pizzabots operating in parallel. Figs. 4.5 – 4.6 These images show the simple movement of the pizzabot, by itself and while carrying a passive element. The robot can be built out of simple, off-the-shelf materials. On a small scale, the prototypes use a cardboard shell, whereas on a bigger scale OSB panels or alumnium shells are proposed.

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4.7 Fig. 4.7 A computational process has been developed for coordinating the distributed assembly of hundreds of pizzabots in parallel. This involves complex task-planning, recognition of the environment, avoidance of collisions and optimisation of the distances travelled.

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Figs. 4.8 – 4.11 Pizzabot Fig 4.8 Exterior view of one of the prototypical habitats envisioned with the pizzabot system.

This design demonstrates the ability of the system to achieve complex, site-specific assemblies while using a very simple building block. The prototype adapts to the terrain. Large spans are achieved by ‘looping’ building elements, which creates a stiff, double layer. Fig 4.9 Interior view of a bedroom in a pizzabot prototype. The interior space demonstrates the level of heterogeneity in the organisation of building elements.

It highlights different patterns in the organisation, from column-like elements to a staircase and more serialised wall segments. Fig. 4.10 A 1:1 scale physical prototype, made out of passive OSB-board building blocks with steel joints. The black steel joints overlap between different elements and establish

a visual pattern as a registration of the assembly process.

Fig. 4.11 A work-in-progress image: pizzabots are emptying containers full of passive building elements. The robots can be seen climbing the structure, using it as a scaffold. The project ultimately claims that the use of relative, discrete robots is fundamental if we want to fully automate building construction.

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4.14 Figs. 4.12 – 4.16 Robotic MetaMaterials This project questions the rigid nature of discrete building blocks and aims to embed more material behaviour and computation into the design system. Fig 4.12 The project proposes voxel-like elements, which all have a specific, programmed deformation. By assembling these voxels into different patterns, deformations and behaviours can be programmed at the level of every voxel.

Fig 4.13 Initial tests were done on thick surface-like prototypes, which were to compare physical behaviour of voxel assemblies with simulated behaviour. Early on in the project, the idea was to look into furniture-scale products which enabled the introduction of more comfort. Figs. 4.14 At a later stage in the project, the same design method was used to develop architectural-scale assemblies of voxel-shaped materials 44

with different structural qualities and finishes. Voxels with different performances and goals can be programmed into a fully functional architectural tectonic. Fig. 4.15 Different chairs were generated with the simulation software, testing different organisations of the meta-material voxels. The goal is to find the right balance between stiffness and softness.

Fig. 4.16 Assembly in progress.

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Figs 4.17 – 4.20 RawBot Fig 4.17 A system snapshot during the assembly of a small model. A custom-developed smartphone app uses augmented reality to produce all the necessary instructions for untrained workers to assemble complex bamboo structures. Using the data formed by machine learning it projects a digitised bamboo in its final position, guiding the assembly. This technology speculates on the use of minimal infrastructure to automate construction. Rather than using robots, just an algorithm on a smartphone can enable large groups of people to assemble a complex structure together.

Fig 4.18 The digital representation of a bamboo pole. A machine learning model has been trained to automatically detect and classify the nodes and the ends of the pole. The system then places the dots in the appropriate places and connects them,

forming the centroidal axis. This digitised version of the raw material is also discrete, as it has a finite number of connection possibilities. This method enables us to use any random length of bamboo, without the need to precisely customise. Fig 4.19 Detail of a structural node, 1:1 scale model. The number of joints depends on the demand for strength that derives from the performed structural analysis. Evidently, their presence is denser in the actual node to make the structure stiff and stable, while the poles extend to reach the next voxel-node.

Injection-moulded plastic joints enable the quick and durable connection of the bamboo bars. Fig 4.20 This prototype of a habitat in south-east Asia explores an approach to automation that focuses on cheap, abundant materials and minimal infrastructure. The smartphone app establishes

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communication between materials, algorithms and people – a form of automation without robots. This approach is particularly useful for developing countries, where expensive infrastructure is not available or cannot meet demand.

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4.23 Figs. 4.21 – 4.25 ClickPipes Building on our long-term interest in linear assemblies, this project develops an easy-to-assemble plastic pipe element. Figs. 4.21 – 4.22 The pipes can be connected with a generic clickable joint, made out of injection-moulded plastic. A custom-developed app allows us to compute and evaluate assemblies in response to shear resistance. The algorithm is based on topology optimisation, in which elements are removed where they are not needed and arranged in the direction of stress. Fig 4.23 A large-scale physical prototype demonstrates the feasibility of this approach. A lightweight but stiff structure is constructed, which can be assembled and de-assembled quickly. Fig 4.24 Design for a slab structure, exploring the relation between black and white elements. White elements are organised in 48

response to shear resistance, while the black elements respond to deflection. By differentiating between the colours, different readings are established. Fig 4.25 As a prototypical case, a design for a graduation canopy in UCL’s quadrangle is developed. This kind of temporary infrastructure could benefit from the ClickPipes system, which allows for quick assembly.

At the same time the generic pipes allow for a high level of customisation in their assembly, which means designs can be highly adaptive to their context and programme.

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Figs. 4.26 – 4.29 Augmented Sheets This project explores the combination of augmented reality (AR) with simple sheet material as universal building blocks. Figs. 4.26 – 4.27 People receive assembly instructions from an interface. AR is understood as a technology that can enable the automation of assembly, by continuously giving instructions to large groups of people using a form of automation beyond robots. The sheet material is marked with a pattern that can be picked up by the Hololens, so that the orientation of the sheet is correctly understood.

Fig. 4.28 The sheets are CNC-milled from OSB board and are cut to a size that is easily managed by people. The sheets can be assembled into a series of structurally stiff patterns.

The sheets are computed using a voxelspace, with specific patterns between sheets being embedded in every voxel.

The voxel space allows for quick and efficient organisation of the elements. The project shows how a cheap, off-the-shelf material can result in large assemblies that remain materially efficient. Fig. 4.29 This prototype dwelling explores different degrees of density and porosity. It is mainly based on an articulated wall structure that encloses the main living spaces.

The pixelated, grid-like quality of the sheets results in a jagged and blurry edge condition. While technically making an argument for automation and timber sheet materials, architecturally the project references historical efforts with universal building blocks, such as SuperStudio’s pre-computer, voxel-like projects.

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Material Architecture Lab Lab Directors: Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

We begin our research by asking questions about materials through both digital and manual design. With the prevalence of digital tools such as numeric-controlled machinery, 3D printing, and robotic-controlled fabrication, the capabilities of industrial production have migrated from factory floors to smaller-scale workshops, laboratories and research facilities everywhere. When this recent development is coupled with advancement in material science at a microscopic scale and the availability of specialist tools to customise materials, the prospect of a new kind of architecture becomes imminent. Despite advances in technology, the cost of digital fabrication is high, while change in the construction industry is slow. Another key disadvantage of digitally driven fabrication is its deterministic nature: everything made has to be digitally modelled without the element of chance. Spontaneity and noise are undesirable.

We encourage students to explore the processes of making without preconceptions, allowing the characteristics of material and fabrication techniques to inform and enrich the outcomes. Perhaps it is material that we need to examine more closely in order to innovate in terms of production and formal outcomes.

New materials in architecture emerge only occasionally, but their impact can be considerable. The very fabric of our cities and landscapes is a testament to what prevails and endures. The innovation of materials does not necessarily mean the invention of new ones.

Traditional materials can be refashioned by altering the way they are processed or utilised.

Material behaviour changes with quantity; structural performance differs depending on its size and the on the environment in which it is constructed; and visual impact varies with distance. Our method of enquiry is hands-on, set firmly in the realms of empirical tests of matter and fabrication at an architectural scale.

The development of material science also goes hand-in-hand with technological shifts.

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As a research laboratory, our interest in material is mediated not only through experimentation with the latest in computational design and digital fabrication, but also through applicability, tested in the construction industry using live projects.

Our design research methodology prioritises a hybrid of fabrication techniques, favouring customised systems, the design of processes as well as products, digitally controlled machining and semi-automated processes.

We encourage our students to be adventurous in questioning established modes of production.

The nature of our experiments is grounded in cyclical processes of making prototypes with rigorous and iterative refinements.

Image: Charbel Chagoury, Chrysoula Katsampe, Wenqian Yang, Junzhuo Zhang, ‘Soft-core’ (2018)

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Research Clusters 5&6

Material Architecture Lab An Introduction to the Digital Manual Guan Lee, Daniel Widrig with Stefan Bassing, Adam Holloway, Igor Pantic

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Student teams SnP Aikaterini Konstantinidou, Laura Lammar, Tatiana Rodrigues De Moraes Teixeira Structural Slip Vittoria Fusco, Banni Liang, Dan Liang, Mingyu Wei Lost Forms Yijun Liu, Dongzhe Sun, Mengzhuo Wang, Jiabei Ye Laminar Grotesque Po Yen Leung, Qinran Li, Kornlada Tansutiraphong, Xitong Zeng Fibreology Jiefu Dan, Chuyao Dong, Hanyue Hu, Chengyang Liu Soft-core Charbel Chagoury, Chrysoula Katsampe, Wenqian Yang, Junzhuo Zhang Fractal Blues Li Chen, Rui Wen, Jiacheng Zeng, Shuwen Zhang Theory Tutors Ruby Law, Arturo Revilla Consultants Giles Corby, Alexis Harrison, Jessie Lee, Nigel Tucker, Jon Wilson, DongJi Yang Critics Mario Carpo, Peter Cook, Frédéric Migayrou, Philippe Morel, Patrik Schumacher, Theo Spyropoulos Partners Grymsdyke Farm, Yuyao Jianye Mould Production Factory Sponsor Grymsdyke Farm

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This year, Material Architecture Lab produced seven distinct research projects, drawn together from a series of past enquiries into materialbased design and experimentation. Instead of delving into the specifics of each project, it is critical here to examine what they all have in common.

What are the shared ideas and tenets of our research methodologies?

At first glance, it is clear that a desire for fresh formal outcomes drives the projects, but the work also invites us to look more closely at the relationships between design processes and the implementation of materials. As a group, our approach occupies a productive ground in design, migrating backwards and forwards between the digital and the manual. But what is this ground and how do we define its boundaries?

We handle materials physically and also through numeric means.

In this sense, our processes are dichotomous, but the outcomes are all manifestly material. With the advent of computerisation, this particular spectrum between the digital and the manual can crudely be identified as an area between the computational and the analogue: self-generating geometries versus formal constructions; design logic through algorithm or material feedback; digital code-driven productions versus making with hand-operated tools; painless automation versus laborious toil; or simply robot versus human. This is a vast territory for research: it is surely not enough to say that we work across the scale.

The crossbreeding of approaches exists because the digital and the analogue are irrevocably divergent and simultaneously mutually exclusive.

The hybridity of both is compelling because the digital is perceived as the future and the manual as the past; the digital as emergent and the analogue as obsolescent. Whatever the digital future holds, whenever the ubiquity of automation looms, one cannot help but suspect that the human element of design, and in particular architecture, will not completely disappear.

We can engage with a digital modelling software computationally or manually, or we can reject all digital tools, and design and make by hand. How can we be specific about working ‘in between’? What kind of questions are relevant if occupying or, more precisely, straddling these territories is central to our design methodology? Our questions this year revolved around digital and manual craft, the handmade and the machinemade. Material Architecture Lab sees design on one hand as procedural and systematic, on the other textural and indecipherable.

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5&6.3 Fig. 5&6.1 S n P This project uses recycled plastic as construction system with a seemingly uncontrolled, amorphous a resource for multi-use and reconfigurable building and yet periodic pattern. components. The components, manufactured using industrial injection-moulding machines, are lightweight yet robust, easy and quick to produce, yet precise. Figs. 5&6.2 – 5&6.5 Fractal Blues Polypropylene nylon rope. Fractal blues uses polypropylene nylon rope as the main design material by proposing alternative visual and structural qualities. This project combines the language of a typical use of the nylon rope, tying and wrapping around objects with fraying then burning of the rope fibres. The melted nylon fibres look and feel different to those of the spun and twisted original. The melted ropes reduce in size and increase in strength. This design process transforms a loose and flexible material into a rigid 56

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Figs. 5&6.6 – 5&6.10 S n P Recycled plastic, aluminium.

This project uses recycled plastic as a resource for multi-use and reconfigurable building components. The two key elements are hollow octagonal pipes in ‘S’ and ‘P’ shapes, which can interlock with one another or connect point-to-point with linear aluminium segments. The assembly and disassembly of different designs, depending on uses and sizes, can be done manually or optimised digitally. These plastic components, manufactured using industrial injection-moulding machines, are lightweight yet robust, easy and quick to produce, yet precise. The project supports the reshaping of plastic manufacturing, away from single-use plastics and towards sustainable, multivalent methods.

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5&6.12 Figs. 5&6.11 – 5&6.14 Fibreology Coconut fibre, bio-plastic, welded steel ring. Building on the lab’s ‘Ecoire’ project (2016-17), this year’s project focuses on the internal structure using tensile membrane and explores the textural logic of the coconut fibre skin. The overall surface topography is used to control a digital flow of fibre that in turn defines the manually crafted starched membrane. The objective of this project is to utilise material sourced from nature and produce a new composite material system. Pure starch-based bio-plastic binds the coir together, working as a new composite material system. This biodegradable material contains a high percentage of lignin which is useful for bending and compression. Coconut fibre here is no longer a byproduct but is instead presented as an alternative eco-material.

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5&6.17 Figs. 5&6.15 – 5&6.18 Laminar Grotesque Recycled paper, wood glue, floor varnish. This project explores the idea of transforming cardboard into an architectural material that resembles wood; paper into structural components. Through techniques such as lamination and compression with recycled cardboard, this design recreates a structure, drawing out the qualities of a tree, in particular the tree bark. Through topological optimisation of the overall polygonal geometry (cuboctahedron), an underlying design pattern is revealed. By cutting out the negative spaces of the pattern, the structures can act as light modulators. The amount of light can be controlled by the pattern density. This design strategy echoes light passing through trees in a forest, scattered and dappled.

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5&6.20 Figs. 5&6.19 – 5&6.22 Structural Slip The aim of this project is to design a structural ceramic system that is lightweight and at the same time allows for permeability and porosity.

The resulting architectural language varies according to environmental performances like solar control, ventilation, thermal comfort and levels of privacy. This modular system is fabricated using a traditional clay slip-casting technique coupled with digitally produced moulds. The moulds and the casts are configured parametrically to allow for maximum flexibility in the design production and manufacturing processes. Clay is universal, natural, accessible, and sustainable, but the key feature here is porosity. The clay body in its raw and wet state is malleable but the particles are so fine, and packed so closely together, that it is impermeable 64

after the firing process if it is not glazed, and becomes robust and brittle, yet porous. The porosity of our wall design reiterates this very subtle change in the material quality of the fired ceramic, rid of water and organic matter.

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Figs. 5&6.24 – 5&6.27 Soft-core Sewn lycra, polyurethane foam, polyurethane coating. This project explores a design language inspired by manual manipulations and tailoring. The initial object – made of polyurethane foam – is soft and pliable, but, with a sprayed on resin-based final coating, the object is given a rigid external shell. It is soft on the inside and hard on the outside, but visually ambiguous. This project’s ornamental language is derived from its composite materiality. From soft to hard, a ‘tectonics of continuity’ is achieved through stitching, folding and different thicknesses of foam manipulated into varying degrees of stiffness. The top coating refines the overall surface quality and provides the firm exterior with a unified structural quality. The result is a composite material system that resembles the skin of a living creature.

The sewn patterns are chosen from a series of digitally designed paths and loops. As a building material, it is lightweight, semi-rigid and self-supporting. The physical properties of this composite system can be exploited for waterproofing or the insulation of spaces. This bulbous mass seeks to be unusually familiar and sensually grotesque.

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Figs. 5&6.228 – 5&6.31 Lost Forms Aluminium, polyethylene foam. Cast aluminium with lost-foam casting technique.

Typically, this technique uses cut polystyrene blocks as pattern. Here, polyethylene insulation foam sheets are used.

Sheets of soft foam are cut, twisted, folded inside-out, bent and joined to form unique architectural components. Multiple components can be joined together to create nodes with modular patterns. Together, these aluminium components can form a variety of ornamental screen designs or a façade system. From a design language to a construction system, standard off-the-shelf extruded aluminium sections are introduced. Together with the customised and bespoke lost-foam cast components, the design composition rethinks post and beam construction as structural branches and

transitional nodules. Fig. 5&6.32 Some of the lab’s work onsite at Grymsdyke Farm, Buckinghamshire.

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BiotA Lab Lab Directors: Richard Beckett, Marcos Cruz

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BiotA Lab is an innovative design research platform that merges architecture, biology and engineering. We explore new modes of simulation and production in architecture, as well as advances in the fields of synthetic biology and material science, and look at how these subjects are shaping an increasingly multidisciplinary approach to environmental design. The result is a new sense of materiality, new hybrid technologies and unprecedented living forms that are redefining not only building design, but our whole built environment.

BiotA Lab’s work is produced between the design studio and laboratory, where innovative building systems are developed with the help of advanced computation. Modelling and simulation tools are implemented in parallel to material testing and organic growth, providing feedback and data for the fabrication of construction components.

Students and researchers design, grow and build bio-digital prototypes that explore a new ecological model for architecture, responding to specific climates based on the relationships between environmental conditions and the interfacial properties of materials with microorganisms. In opposition to the traditional complexities and high costs of ‘green architecture’, BiotA Lab explores an alternative symbiosis between buildings and nature that is more computationally sophisticated, and less expensive for buildings in high-density cities.

Members of the lab develop unique skills that bridge innovative computational design, materials, fabrication and laboratory protocols.

This makes former students and researchers highly desirable in a wide range of architectural practices and laboratories with a particular focus on computational and sustainable design.

The cross-collaborative nature of the work allows students to operate individually as cutting-edge designers and as part of teams exploring new design agendas that respond to the everincreasing environmental challenges of cities.

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Work produced in the lab is regularly exhibited and presented at international events, including recent events such as BioTallinn (Estonia, 2017); Ecobuild (London, 2016/7/8); Biofabricate (New York, 2015/6/7); SuperMaterial (London, 2017); Norman Foster Foundation (Madrid, 2017); RSA (London, 2017); Camley Street Nature Park (London, 2017); BioSalon (London, 2015/6); SyndeBio (London, 2014). Projects have been disseminated in publications such as The Atlantic; Fast Company; Houzz; Building Design; and Architecture Research Quarterly.

BiotA Lab includes students from Research Cluster 7 and The Bartlett’s Architecture by Design PhD programme, who form part of an internal network of experts in environmentally-led design and novel applications of advanced biotechnologies in architecture, while also developing externally-funded research.

We work in collaboration and partnership with ArchID Lab, University of Newcastle; C-Biom.A, IaaC Barcelona; Cambridge University; as well as UCL Biochemical Engineering; UCL Institute of Making; and the UCL Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering.

‘B[R]PV: Bioreceptive Photovoltaic’, by Eleni Dourampei, Hoda Eskandarnia, Huang Yuan, Zhao Ziwei, at The B-Pro Show 2017.

Photo: Stonehouse Photographic

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Student teams Poramic Tectonics Qi Cheng, Dian Liu, Yixin Liu Myco-Mensa Yufei Lin, Chen Shen, Lingwei Shi Terracotta Organism Tian Du, Yanghui Yan, Kexin Zhang Microbial Fuel Cells in the Built Environment Wenxuan Li, Junpeng Lyu, Xiaoqi Wang, Xiaoqing Yu

This year, Research Cluster 7 focused on a new bio-digitally driven materiality in which novel composites were fabricated and designed with the help of computational means. Digital simulations, including complex self-generative and procedural growth algorithms were developed alongside species-specific material exploration and analogue making that integrated terracotta, ceramics, concrete and mycelium-impregnated polymers. Our work revolved around themes including biotechnology, material and design engineering, bio-receptive design, environmental sustainability, new rules for structures, novel architectural tectonics and large-scale fabrication.

Over the year, students explored how these subjects are leading towards hybrid technologies and unprecedented living forms that are being integrated in our contemporary built environment. On our field trip to Iceland, we explored extreme environments and landscapes, and the fascinating ways in which micro-organisms and other living species have adapted specific and often unexpected mechanisms to survive and thrive in such inhospitable niches.

Over the course of the year, the cluster developed the notion of extreme computational techniques for the fabrication of new materially crafted environments, driven by host-guest relationships towards integrating living organisms within the material matrix of architecture. This approach produced geometric formations, driven by environmental data and the physical and chemical tolerances of chosen strains of bacteria, mycelium and cryptogams. The tension between biological requirements, emergence and environmental factors defines an architectural agenda that produces highly integrated and multi-layered design approaches to 1:1 building surface prototypes of different scales, from tables, to walls and roofs, to buildings.

Theory Tutors Paolo Bombelli, Es Devlin, Nina Jotanovic, Ruby Law, Shneel Malik, Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa, Anete Salmane Consultant Paolo Bombelli Critics Luis Hernan, Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa

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Fig. 7.1 Myco-Mensa Laboratory-based growth testing.

Figs. 7.2 – 7.5 Poramic Tectonics This project focuses on the creation of porous ceramic (poramic) tiles optimised to promote moss colonisation on its surface. It explores a variety of porous properties in multiple scales, ranging from micro(porosity), to medium- (texture) to larger-scale (tectonic) geometry as a way to control the absorption and retention of water. To achieve the desired porosity, biological scaffolds such as sea sponges were introduced into the material mix and later removed during the firing process. This left a distinct morphological imprint on each individual tile-component.

The resulting building components were developed to be applied on a competition proposal for a new Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Fig. 7.2 Poramic fabrication.

Slip-casting lightweight porous ceramic components.

Fig. 7.3 Poramic Component. Lost-sponge casting to create bioreceptive microclimate zones for moss growth.

Fig. 7.4 Growth testing of moss on poramic components.

Growth enhancing (porous) and growth inhibiting areas are defined through application of lost-sponge casting or glazed areas respectively. Fig. 7.5 Building design as a competition proposal for a new Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

The bioreceptive ceramic façade acts as a ‘catcher’ of the various airbourne seeds and spores blown towards the city from Central Park. Once grown, the building itself then acts as a seed for further growth proliferation into the urban grid, providing a source of suitably adapted photosynthetic organisms for the future bioreceptive city.

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7.8 Figs. 7.6 – 7.9 Terracotta Organism Research into bioreceptive materials has shown that lichens can proliferate on terracotta composites. This project took these results as a starting point to develop a new type of terracotta brick that could be assembled to create a bioreceptive wall system with curved brick junctions and window frames. Each brick was conceived as a separate ‘organ’ that operated in a network of bricks to create a full ‘organism’ that was able to breathe, filter, and maintain water to feed lichens. An internal water channelling system was designed to carry nutrients and moisture to specific areas of the wall surface, while multiple porosities of the material enabled regulation of the transport and storage of water. Figs. 7.6 – 7.7 Digital and fabricated aggregations of interlocking components with environmentally driven growth 78

zones for different lichen strains. Fig. 7.8 Bioreceptivity growth testing of lichen strains on different terracotta substrates.

Fig. 7.9 Slip-cast terracotta component with transplanted lichen growth and wall system prototype proposal.

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7.11 Figs. 7.10 – 7.15 Myco-Mensa A digitally controlled selfgrowing, filamentous mycelium composite table. Figs. 7.10 – 7.11 Plan and perspective render of the fabricated table.

In order to strengthen the interlocking geometries of a 3D-printed cellulose filament that resulted from a differential growth script, Pleurotus ostreatus (white oyster mushroom) was grown in and around the material. Key to the development of the project was the study of how mycelium growth determines the physical properties of this bio-composite as an interior and exterior, as well as structural building material, and the relationship it has with the surrounding environment for future growth. Fig. 7.12 Differential line growth scripts were developed in order to maximise surface area availability of cellulose for metabolism by the mycelium, while at the same 80

time ensuring continuous lines as toolpaths for robotic extrusion fabrication. The scripts were ‘grown’ in three dimensions to create defined microclimates of shade and nutrition, specifying environmentally and chemically where the mycelium could grow. Fig. 7.13 Robotic extrusion of cellulose-based filament as a biological scaffold for mycelium.

Fig. 7.14 Seeding and growth of mycelium in defined areas within the table geometry. Fig. 7.15 Laboratory-based growth testing of mycelium under different physical, geometrical and chemical conditions

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7.18 Figs. 7.16 – 7.20 Microbial Fuel Cells in the Built Environment Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging sustainable energy technology where energy is extracted from microbes in the soil of growing plants. This project aimed towards developing the potential of this technology for a large-scale application on a roof. An array of different MFC components were designed to be clustered together to form a power grid that could supply light for the building. The design was based on a self-generative modular computational grid that was then prefabricated and assembled with 3D-printed components into a complex structural framework. Fig. 7.16 Digital branching study for fuel cell framework with four levels of orientation. Fig. 7.17 Microbial Fuel Cell Unit. Fig. 7.18 Modular grid fabrication detail with variable orientation.

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Figs. 7.19 – 7.20 Top and perspective view of building proposal with microbial fuel cell roof. Visitor Centre in Bullmans Wharf, Essex, UK.

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Research Cluster 8

The Imminent Reality of Multi-Materiality

Student teams Chaonan Hua, Tengyao Ji, Xi Lin, Jianfei Lyu, Alejandro Nieto Jimenez, Ainaini Hamimi Abdul Rahin, Mengyan Sun

The practice of fusing materials together at visible scales was instigated in aerospace engineering as far back as the 1970s. Admixtures such as ceramic-steel graded materials allowed the thermal insulation properties of ceramics to be combined with the structural properties of metals, eschewing the use of any mechanical fasteners or joining that would otherwise form weak points where failure would occur.

Nowadays, in materials science research, the actual number of combinations and ratios of mixing elements is infinite, while in architecture, this idea of graded materiality promises a fundamental shift in how elements come together, opening up a whole new discussion in the understanding of constructs as continuous fields consisting of diverse materiality varied on a local level. Correspondingly, it can be argued that multi-materiality as a near-future building technique can enable a much more direct, immediate and orderly way of building in which componentisation and collaging are initially bypassed and eventually superseded. In this scenario, the current practice of messy tectonic assemblages – in which the fabrication of a single window unit requires the coordination of numerous manufacturing and contracting trades – can be replaced by the singular secretion of a variably continuous multi-material, consisting of transparent, translucent, opaque and structural insulating sub-materials.

Research Cluster 8 explores new procedures for designing and building with material gradients to anticipate these radical developments in manufacturing and construction. Targeted towards the rethinking of the 21st-century modernist leftover, the curtain wall, the first part of these explorations was concerned with the digital assimilation of graded information and the distribution and engineering of digital sub-materials to meet aesthetic, structural, and functional criteria. The second part was to physically mix and manufacture our digitally designed multi-materials.

Mengyan, Mims, and Jianfei achieved the fusion of bronze alloys with glass, with the intent being to generate a materially-instigated, complete abolition of componentry in building façades. Alex, Xi, Chaonan, and Tengyao operated in the boundary between composite and graded materiality, proposing an in-situ skin system consisting of a robotically fabricated and topologically optimised 3D metal structure, captured within a laminated plastic skin, with the intent being to rethink the panelised façade as a continuous construct that could, in principle, span infinitely.

The cluster created prototypes and structures that were more than just a collection of individual parts, initiating a strand of research into material continuity for emerging building techniques.

Theory Tutor Sheng-Yang (William) Huang Technical Tutors Alican Inal, Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez, Michal Wojtkiewicz The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Critics Richard Beckett, Marcos Cruz, Octavian Gheorghiu, Tyson Hosmer, Manuel Jiménez Garcia, Guan Lee, Frédéric Migayrou, Maj Plemenitas, Andrew Porter, Gilles Retsin, Javier Ruiz, Vicente Soler, Daniel Widrig

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Figs. 8.1 – 8.9 Chaonan Hua, Tengyao Ji, Xi Lin, Alejandro Nieto Jimenez ‘In Situ Robotically Fabricated Façade System [ISRFFS]’. The project rethinks the discreteness and homogeneity of the standard curtain wall, by proposing an alternative building skin that is robotically fabricated onsite and materially differentiated to correspond to the heterogeneity of loading conditions. Fig. 8.1 Topologically optimised load distribution on a segment of the ISRFFS envelope; colours from light purple to blue indicate von Mises stress values, ranging from 139000 maximum to 0 minimum.

Fig. 8.2 Physical study model of a marching cube structure, generated inside a topologically optimised volume, varying its porosity and thickness according to load values and distance from floor supports. Fig. 8.3 ISRFFS study detail of structural

attachment opening. Figs. 8.4 – 8.5 ISRFFS internal structure and exterior skin details. Two acrylic layers are vacuum-formed on the exterior and interior side of the topologically optimised structure. Fig. 8.6 Optical gradient research material samples ranging from 8% blue wax to 92% glass wax submaterial ratio on the left to 100% glass wax on the right. Fig. 8.7 Study detail of structural attachment openings for connecting the ISRFFS to its supporting structure. Fig. 8.8 Close-up view of the interstitial space between the internal structure and the laminated acrylic skin. Fig. 8.9 Toolpath study for the robotic fabrication of the ISRFFS’s endo-structure.

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Figs. 8.10 – 8.17 Jianfei Lyu, Ainaini Rahin, Mengyan Sun ‘Continuously Graded Building Envelope’. The project offers an alternative to the point-support curtain walling system and its associated inadequacies, in the form of a functionally graded componentless envelope consisting of metal fusing continuously into glass. Figs. 8.10 – 8.11 Rendered detail studies of the graded multiple point connection between the glass and metal submaterials of the multi-material envelope. Figs. 8.12 – 8.13 Frontal and perspective interior views of the graded building envelope. The exterior glass skin was topologically optimised to correspond more closely to loading conditions and to reduce the amount of overall material used. A separate optimisation was performed for the supporting metal structure and a graded metal-glass spider

bracket was used to bridge together nodal points of the two optimised patterns. Fig. 8.14 Demoulding process of the plaster and quartz base for eventual glass slumping.

Fig. 8.15 Porosity study render of the graded building envelope’s substructure. Fig. 8.16 Close-up view of metal and bullseye frit glass functionally graded material study.

Fig. 8.17 Close-up view of the glass-fibre-reinforced metal alloy and glass-wax material study.

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Research Cluster 9

Augmented (Design and Fabricate through Augmentation)

Student teams BloomShell Yi Lin, Yushi Gao, Jiayi Liu, Yang Song iBrick Sheng Li, Xiao Liu, Kaijie Qian FlowMorph Yu-Hsin Huang, Eri Sumitomo, Jie Sun CalcuLoops Haobo Meng, Ke Miao

We are living in the age of augmentation: machines have become an inseparable part of our daily lives. We are immersing ourselves into rapidly developing mixed realities, with devices such as smartphones and tablets augmenting the perception of our environments. In a similar way, craftsmanship and fabrication processes can be reinforced through augmentation; digital information can be intuitively projected through mixed reality, extending the possibilities of traditional crafting techniques through wearable machines. This process challenges the traditional notion of human-machine and human-information relationships, making human (designer) intuition an important part of this equation.

Research Cluster 9 is interested in exploring the interaction between human, machine and data and their mutual relationships throughout the computational design and fabrication processes. We pose the question: what is the most meaningful role for each of these three components in regards to the way we live, and the way we build our living environment?

This year, we looked at this issue through the utilisation of technologies of mixed reality and the internet of things. With the current state of computational design discourse and the potential of virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence technologies in mind, we challenge the modes of interaction between the designer and virtual models, emphasising intuitive input throughout design and production processes.

Theory Tutor Abel Maciel The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Consultants Fologram, Vicente Soler Critics Gwyllim Jahn

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Fig. 9.1 FlowMorph A product of a research project that is made out of stretched plastic components, aided with the use of augmented reality techniques. Figs. 9.2 – 9.5 iBrick This project explores computer-human interaction during the construction process. Designs consist out of a large number of prefabricated elements which can be assembled through the use of interlocking joints, allowing for the system to be assembled and reassembled into different configurations.

In order to complete the real-time feedback loop, the research looked into computer vision, computer recognition of human-made changes and the physical environment – creating a flexible system which utilises human and computer intelligence at the same time. Fig. 9.2 Illustration of a designer assembling the structure in front of a depth-sensing camera.

Fig. 9.3 Illustration of computer vision and real-time recognition. Fig. 9.4 Example catalogue of AI-generated models based on the recognised or already-assembled physical model. Fig. 9.5 Illustration of what designers see through the augmented reality device during the assembly process.

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9.7 Figs. 9.6 – 9.9 iBrick Fig. 9.6 A sample outcome of a piece of furniture with seating area and shelf. Fig. 9.7 A designer interacting with the virtual model Fig. 9.8 A maker receiving instruction from computer through an augmented reality device. Fig. 9.9 Illustration of workshop setup: demonstration of the computer’s vision of a physically assembled model as well as a real-time calculated digital model.

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9.12 Figs. 9.10 – 9.13 BloomShell This project explores the processes of sculpting and assembling double-curved lightweight structures. Surfaces are made from synthetic composite materials which are bent and assembled using augmented reality techniques. The images illustrate the assembly process, interface design, and the resulting physical model.

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9.16 Fig. 9.14 BloomShell Assembly process illustration. Figs. 9.15 – 9.17 FlowMorph This project explores both designing and making through the use of augmented reality techniques.

Fig. 9.15 Algorithmically generated forms are the result of a hybrid design process, in which algorithms and digital models are manipulated by human gestures. Figs. 9.16 – 9.17 The digitally generated forms are then fabricated by stretching polymorph plastic. The assembly process would be highly labour intensive and nearly impossible to achieve without the use of AR tools. Likewise, the fabrication of such complex forms would prove to be difficult and expensive using conventional or robotic 3D printing. Fig. 9.18 BloomShell A proposed design outcome.

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Image: B-Pro Show 2017

Image: B-Pro Show 2017

Urban Design MArch

Urban Design MArch Programme Director: Roberto Bottazzi

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Urban Design MArch takes cities as privileged vantage points from which to investigate and speculate on the most pressing contemporary conditions, such as the conflation of digital and physical domains, climate change, and everexpanding urbanisation.

The main drivers of the design investigations are the research clusters, each following a small group of students and setting their independent research agenda. Clusters run for the entire duration of the programme, supporting students to identify a research agenda and brief, and develop a design proposal in small groups or individually. Clusters not only expose students to a particular set of urban concerns, but also introduce advanced computational methods we can use to analyse and generate new urban programmes and morphologies. They are incubators for new spatial ideas in which design and digital technology merge to give rise to new modes of inhabiting and experiencing urban environments.

The range of topics covered by the different clusters spans the impact of big data and machine learning algorithms on design, to bio-computing, advanced algorithmic thinking and large-scale architecture, the role of masscustomisation in urbanism, and speculations on how urban environments may be experienced and altered through gaming. Within each cluster a lively and creative conversation is promoted through tutorials, workshops, lectures, debates, and creative exchanges. These provide students with a range of intellectual concerns, as well as the design methods that are eventually expanded to form the basis of their final project and thesis.

The programme is affiliated with the Urban Morphogenesis Lab, which explores artificial and biological intelligence in urban design.

The variety and richness of the research agendas pursued is underpinned by an interest in the increasing role that digital technologies are playing in shaping our urban environment.

This agenda is also explored through a series of seminars and the B-Pro lecture series, Prospectives, dedicated to the history and future of computation in spatial design, all of which support students in developing their theory report.

Image: Apostolos Apostolopoulos, Caitlin Brock, Anna Kampani (Research Cluster 14) ‘Perceptive Datascapes’ (2018) 104

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Research Cluster 11

Anthropogenic Topographies

Student teams Rebalanced Urban Woodlands Shiyu Liang, Pengjin Mu Shaping Sound Santiago Beckdorf Sola, Wenyu Sun Shifting Ground Min Yeong Cha, Berta Garriga Torrens Topographical Microclimates Juan Pablo Della Maggiora Martinez, Katherine (Nicky) Nicholas Holness Unlock Urban Flood Linxi Huang, Zhou Lei, Yihan Pan

As mass-urbanisation plays out across the globe, cities and their derivative operations are shaping the Earth on an unprecedented scale. Urban processes have surpassed natural processes as the lead driver of geomorphic, atmospheric, and ecological change in what has been heralded as a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene. The distinction between city and landscape as we know it no longer exists. Road building, housing construction, agricultural production, resource supply, and leisure opportunities are among those demands generated by urban populations that are now shaping a territory well beyond the traditional urban perimeter.

We regard this expanded field, this anthropogenic topography, to be the territory of urbanism.

In this context, Research Cluster 11 explores the relations between urban and landscape systems, to reframe our understanding of urbanism on a territorial and geological scale. Along with the dissolution of boundaries between city and countryside, there is a simultaneous blurring of disciplinary boundaries within the design professions, brought about by this increasingly complex and layered urban territorial condition.

Research Cluster 11 deploys a range of tools from architecture, landscape, and urban design to address this anthropogenic topography.

Synthesising open-ended landscape processes with urban systems and cultural experience, students challenge established notions of city, infrastructure, and landscape, and propose flexible yet directive patterns for future urbanisation. We explore how urban systems and infrastructures can be informed by landscape processes to enable new resiliencies, new cultural relevance, and new productivities. Ultimately, we seek to uncover how these novel hybrid systems may structure models of future urban living in the peri-urban areas of cities. This year, Research Cluster 11 has investigated a transect of urban to peri-urban to rural transitions, extending beyond the traditional metropolitan boundary, with the understanding of urbanism as a territorial, land-forming process.

As urban designers, we are geomorphic agents. Considering infrastructure to be the structuring element of urban territories, we explore a new approach to (landscape) masterplanning based on hybrid landscape-infrastructure systems. We use the embedded intelligence of landscape systems – including geomorphological processes, ecological processes, and natural systems – to inform the organisation of urban and peri-urban environments over time, taking into account competing functions within the urban territory.

Theory Tutor Rae Whittow-Williams Critics Laura Allen, Grace Catenaccio, Kelly Doran, Frédéric Migayrou, Maj Plemenitas, Andrew Porter, Daniel Portilla, Eduardo Rico, Mark Smout, Tim Waterman

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0.0 11.3 Fig. 11.1 Shaping Sound Material studies explore texture, porosity, and density in relation to absorption of various frequency levels. Through the use of different materials, the spreading of sound is directed through environments to enhance and control the perception of space. Figs. 11.2 – 11.4 Shifting Ground This project explores the relationship between anthropogenic and geological processes in the Nottingham and Derby Green Belt. The interaction of these two processes is producing an increasingly unstable landscape characterised by subsidence, shifting topographies, and sinkholes as a result of accelerated erosion and the dissolution of geological layers. The project develops a series of strategic interventions that respond to anthropogenic, geological, and ecological layers in order to accelerate or arrest this process.

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Fig. 11.3 Borewells, used for local water extraction, are paired with anchors to detect ground subsidence. When sinking action is identified near sensitive infrastructure, inflatable structures are activated to shore up unstable areas. Fig. 11.4 A dynamic monitoring system surveils the landscape, directing the deployment of intervention strategies to alternatively accelerate precarious zones or protect more stable zones to make them available for future development. The project proposes an alternative approach to suburban planning in the green belt, one that is fundamentally tied to the landscape condition and driven by entropic processes over time.

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11.6 Figs. 11.5 – 11.8 Unlock Urban Flood This project addresses the challenges faced by increasing flood risk, development pressure, and ageing infrastructure within the Thames Estuary.

The project develops a design strategy for slowing, storing, and moving water through the watershed of the River Darent.

The proposed system exposes water and integrates it with urban infrastructure to make the experience of water, and its management, part of a new strategy for living within a flood plain. Figs. 11.5 – 11.6 As an alternative to the existing monofunctional infrastructure of culverts and dams, a system of responsive gates is developed to ­work at various scales and with the embedded intelligence of landscape systems. The gates are configured to slow water for increased infiltration during daily conditions and low rainfall, while allowing maximum 110

11.7 conveyance in large storm events. Figs 11.7 – 11.8 A system of catchment pools is integrated with urban and natural landscapes to increase the water holding capacity within the watershed, thereby reducing the impact of flooding. This series of catchment pools also extends the length of the journey of water through the River Darent’s watershed, allowing water to be further cleaned before reaching the River Darent or the Thames.

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Figs. 11.9 – 11.11 Shaping Sound This project explores the impact of a changing soundscape on both human and non-human species in London’s Green Belt. Increasing urban and infrastructural development has led to an increase in high-decibel, low-frequency sound sources. The existing open landscape of the green belt offers limited means for controlling the spread of this sound. The project proposes an alternative approach to suburban development in the green belt where building and landscape collectively form a topography that can shape and control the spread of sound. This system is tuned to enhance high-frequency sounds that are associated with natural sources and reduce low-frequency sounds that disrupt the perception and experience of both human and non-human species. Fig. 11.9 Material studies explore the

effectiveness of varying porosities, densities, and textures to absorb or reflect both high- and low-frequency sounds.

In materials with a pore size of 4-20mm, high-frequency sound waves are reflected back, while low-frequency waves are absorbed. Fig. 11.10 The form and manipulation of ribs is explored to further enhance the reflection and absorption of sound from different source directions. Fig 11.11 The design strategy is tested on a site in Essex, at the intersection of the A127 and A130 motorways, where multiple future developments are currently planned. Rather than continue the current approach of scattering development throughout the green belt, the project proposes to cluster development along corridors and use the built fabric as a device for shaping the movement of sound. Topographic manipulations and formal

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applications on the faรงades of buildings create a continuous surface designed for absorbing and reflecting particular sounds. Together, these interventions rebalance the soundscape of suburban green belt developments to enable more accurate orientation, migration, and communication of non-human species while reducing the abrasive effects of low-frequency sounds on both humans and non-humans.

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11.14 Fig.11.12 Shaping Sound The environment that results from these interventions supports the mutual coexistence of various species in the green belt while buffering infrastructural expansion.

Figs. 11.13 – 11.14 Topographical Microclimates The land uses presently found within the London Green Belt – industry, suburban housing, low-quality open space, infrastructure, agriculture, parkland – form a landscape quite different from the pastoral identity of the green belt. This project investigates how landfills, a prevalent and contradictory programme within the green belt today, may be used to reinvigorate the green belt’s agricultural identity through a new form of farming.

Microclimates tuned to specific temperatures, shade, and wind conditions are created by shaping the topography of landfills.

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and sun exposure. Additionally, the heat generated by decomposing waste and industrial activities onsite is used to create a hotbed effect to enhance agricultural growth, while cooling pockets of forest and water are positioned to create thermodynamic air movement. This strategy, tested on the site of an existing landfill in Surrey, ties waste management across the green belt into a productive closed-loop system and re-establishes the green belt’s agricultural identity. Figs. 11.15 – 11.17 Rebalanced Urban Woodlands In London, the occurrence and severity of reported seasonal allergies is increasing each year. This trend is largely driven by the significant lack of diversity in the species and gender of trees planted in the city, which has led to reduced resilience amongst residents. This project investigates how a

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11.17 new approach to reforestation in urban green belts may be used to counter this growing problem and increase the resilience of urban residents and ecologies. A large-scale agroforestry strategy introduces tree nurseries as a tool for enriching biodiversity, producing diverse pollen exposure, and protecting large areas of the green belt from development. Tree species are selected by pollen type and dispersal distance, and zoned within the London Green Belt in response to wind direction and in relation to development areas. Topographic manipulations help to control wind direction and guide pollen. Pollen is harvested as a marketable supply for the urban population to increase allergenic resilience, while the trees themselves replace existing urban street trees over time as they age, increasing gender and species diversity in both the city and green belt.

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Research Cluster 12

Videogame Urbanism: Playing the Metropolis of Tomorrow

Students Chencheng Duan, Qi Feng, Lily Liu, Mingpei Liu, Stella Papaspyrou, Yun Tie, Qing Yang, Yiming Yang, Lei Yun, Yuanyi Zhang, Yingying Zhu, Li Zhu, Yu Zhu, Zhaowei Zhu

Our research pursues urban design concepts using videogame technologies. We challenge the media through which urban design is communicated by using videogames as an alternative model of computation to speak about real conditions, allowing people to inhabit our worlds through playable interfaces. We collaborate with architects, authors, game developers, museums, curators and critics to understand how videogames can contribute to the design of our cities. Most importantly, we see games as a medium for engaging vast new audiences with opaque urban processes, whether social, political or ecological.

Theory Tutor Gareth Damian Martin

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Critics Roberto Bottazzi, Mario Carpo, Zachary Fluker, Daniel Koehler, Enriqueta Llabres Valls, Areti Markopoulou, Frédéric Migayrou, Rasa Navasaityte, Andrew Porter, Patrik Schumacher, Mark Smout, Tasos Varoudis.

Special thanks Thanks to Robert Yang and Eric Zimmerman at NYU Game Center, John Sharp at Parsons School of Design and Nathalie Pozzi of NAKWORKS for hosting our studio in New York. Thanks to Alex Wiltshire for featuring Videogame Urbanism research in EDGE Magazine.

Luke Pearson, Sandra Youkhana

Playing the Metropolis of Tomorrow This year, we interrogated the relationship between speculative representations of cities and the rules by which they grow. We began our research by making games revisiting experimental urban projects of the past, from Superstudio’s Continuous Monument to Lloyd-Wright’s Broadacre City and Soleri’s Arcologies. We created a compendium of games that reconstructed these seminal projects as inhabitable and playable virtual spaces.

Following our field trip to New York and NYU Game Center, students developed more complex games interrogating the morphology and systems of the city. We made games where players could participate in the historical development of Manhattan’s grid system, cutting and grading the island before paving out its famous streets. In another, rhythmic gestures from the player construct spiralling skyscrapers in progressively modern materials, while another project established a free-roaming city of allegorical islands inspired by the archipelago of New York.

Videogame Urbanism Our final games were designed around contemporary issues facing London. We made games that examine our everyday carbon footprint within London, such as one which evaluates players’ real-world lifestyles to build their unique avatars. In another game, the complex economies and systems behind recycling within the city are explored as two players work together to collect, trade and reform waste into usable materials.

We turned the ‘city builder’ game on its head by constructing within subterranean London, made games about the city’s future housing provision and recreated Regent Street as ‘rus in urbe’, a promenade of picturesque virtual gardens unfolding around the player.

Through each strand of research, Videogame Urbanism invites you to play the metropolis of tomorrow.

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Fig. 12.1 Yingying Zhu ‘Beyond the Bubble’. Drawing from Walt Disney’s plans for the Epcot theme park, this videogame explores his urban structure as an internalised world, a manifestation of the ‘bubble’ as Epcot came to be known.

Using ‘planetary gravity’, players explore the surface of this bubble, conducting daily life within a spherical urbanism.

Fig. 12.2 Yun Tie, Li Zhu, Zhaowei Zhu ‘Carbon Neutral Living’.

By using role-playing game (RPG) systems, this videogame explores the impact of our lives in the city upon our individual carbon footprint. The player provides details about their own living habits, creating their own unique avatar. Decisions made within the game affect the player’s carbon footprint, raising awareness of how every aspect of our life in the city has an impact on the environment. Mini-games – including cooking,

shopping and even installing greywater systems in the home – allow the player to experiment with new ways of living that reduce their footprint. Ultimately, the player’s success is determined by their awareness of the impact their life has on the environment. Fig. 12.3 Lily Liu, Yiming Yang, Yuanyi Zhang ‘Skyscrapers of Manhattan’. The game is a playable history of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, created in the form of a ‘rhythm game’ where players must bash combinations of buttons in time, like a steelworker banging rivets, to build their skyscrapers ever higher. The tallest wins. Fig. 12.4 Yun Tie ‘Broadacre Boogie Woogie’. This videogame turns the history of Frank Lloyd Wright’s urban fantasies into a game where the player attempts to assemble his ‘Usonian’ vision in the face of architectural interlopers.

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Fig. 12.5 Lily Liu ‘Isozaki’s Trees’. Responding to Arata Isozaki’s City in the Air, this videogame imagines his urban structures as trees. By modelling seed distribution systems, the game imagines his urbanism growing organically atop an existing city.

As players interact with the city, new seeds are distributed which grow into yet more towers, suggesting a type of natural propagation system for Isozaki’s tree-like structures.

Fig. 12.6 Yu Zhu ‘Architectural Fantasies (and Failures)’.

Inspired by Yakov Chernikov’s Architectural Fantasies, this game explores the heroic nature of his factory-like structures, suggesting that failure may follow them underneath the surface. As the player engages with each factory in the game to make it work, it then spirals out of control, producing a disaster. In this way, the project examines the relationship

between urban design and political hubris, suggesting that the positivity and poetry of Chernikov’s fantasies hid the reality of life for many Soviet citizens. Figs. 12.7 – 12.8 Mingpei Liu ‘Living with the Continuous Monument’. This videogame imagines the impact of Superstudio’s seminal Continuous Monument if it was actually built. Creating a series of scenarios drawn from Superstudio’s collages, the game explores how different cultural contexts would react to the monument by giving the player a series of tools to engage with its generic gridded form. Players can hide the monument, attack it, integrate it with traditional architecture or celebrate it by extending it ever further. Through the game space, Superstudio’s satirical utopia becomes a participatory fantasy.

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Fig. 12.9 Mingpei Liu, Yingying Zhu, Yu Zhu ‘Greatest Grids of Manhattan’. Through a new form of ‘city-builder’ videogame, this project explores the history of Manhattan’s grid system and how it was formed. Starting in the 17th century, players terraform and reshape the hilly island of Manhattan, turning it into the metropolis we know today. The game establishes a series of relationships between the parcelling of land, the grading of streets and the numbering of avenues and the spatial system they produced which allowed Manhattan to grow so fast and so tall. Play well and the shiny buildings of today will grow up from the city. Play badly and Manhattan becomes an anachronistic patchwork of undeveloped portions where nature collides with the skyscraper. Fig. 12.10 Qi Feng, Yun Lei ‘Rus in Urbe’. Drawing from John Nash’s picturesque

designs, including his urban avenues such as Regent Street, this game allows the player to wander through ‘rus in urbe’ – nature in the city. Regent Street is reinvented as a picturesque route, with the player using a ‘Claude glass’ as a virtual viewing tool to reveal a hidden realm inspired by Nash’s architecture and other notable English garden compositions. By seeking out a series of hidden follies, a digital garden unfolds within the urban. Fig. 12.11 Chencheng Duan, Qi Feng, Yun Lei, Qing Yang ‘Transit NYC’. New York’s transit system is under perpetual strain. In this videogame, the player must navigate through a normal day within the city, finding the right train, competing for a taxi and riding upon the network of ferries that circulate around Manhattan.

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Figs. 12.12 – 12.13 Zhaowei Zhu ‘Endless Architecton’. Inspired

by Kazimir Malevich’s Architectons, this videogame explores the multi-scalar nature of Malevich’s spatial system. Beginning at the scale of an art gallery, the player explores Malevich’s geometries at progressively larger scales through a series of spatial puzzles and encounters. A sculpture becomes a building, becomes a city and becomes a world. As the player explores a series of geometrical situations, their problem-solving causes Architectons to grow and shift around them, opening up the way. These grow to the size of a world in the final level, and the player begins to lose their sense of scale and orientation.

The game’s final puzzle culminates in the reversal of gravity, setting Malevich’s geometry free and reinforcing his idea of it as a system for spatial exploration that held multiple possible

interpretations and readings. Fig. 12.14 Qi Feng ‘No-Stop Studies’. Drawing upon Archizoom’s famous No-Stop City project, this videogame imagines the endless zones they created within mirrored boxes and drawings as a virtual game space that grows around the movements of the player.

Landscapes populated by playful objects and furniture of leisure mirror and repeat around the player as they navigate the world. Here, game mechanics are used to reinforce Andrea Branzi’s idea of No-Stop City as a ‘quantitative utopia’ driven by numbers, repetition and systems.

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12.17 Figs. 12.15 – 12.17 Stella Papaspyrou ‘The Ludic Sanatorium’.

This project questions the changing nature of work and play relationships in contemporary society. The research revolves around the possibility of a future with less or no work. The main concept of the project derives from the idea of work as a fundamental structure, closely related to the act of play, which gives society an order and individual life a meaning, considering people as ludic – spontaneous and playful – creatures. In this future, play, or leisure, is going to become ‘the new work’, where people voluntarily visit a ‘ludic sanatorium’ to fulfil their innate need for work activities. Sited within the HSBC building in Canary Wharf, the sanatorium was primarily developed through collage drawings that then formed the structure for a videogame which explores how the lines 122

between play and work are progressively blurred and muddled.

Players engage in multiple forms of ‘busy-work’, from growing and harvesting crops, to solving and sorting puzzles through to copy-editing documents on a computer screen. Fig. 12.18 Mingpei Liu, Yingying Zhu, Yu Zhu ‘Sub-Urban’. This videogame inverts the typical ‘city-builder’ game, by asking players to build a city underground. London is a city with a great deal of subterranean infrastructure, and building underground has taken on particular resonance with the public due to the proliferation of ‘iceberg’ houses for the super-rich who exploit the ability to carve out huge spaces underneath the city.

However, the game argues that our underground space still houses a rich potential to help the city further, and mitigate certain problems facing London above ground. In this game,

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12.18 the player must manipulate a solid cube, the faces of which represent different sectors of the city. By matching the programmes and needs of different buildings above ground, new connections are established below. Players require quick reactions and the ability to understand the links between building typologies that can be connected underground. As they spin and carve out of this urban block, we start to see a new city emerge as a kind of sectional Rubik’s Cube of London, that sees the underground realm as just a valid form of urban space as any other.

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12.19 Fig. 12.19 Lily Liu, Yiming Yang, Yuanyi Zhang ‘Reciprocity’.

This two-player split screen videogame explores the relationship between urban space and recycling. It is designed to highlight the large amount of waste that cities make, but also reveal the complex material economies that can be developed in response. Two players must work together, one to collect waste from the city, and the second to operate a series of factories and recycling plants that turn waste into usable resources for the first player to redevelop and enhance London. The game requires cooperation, communication and an understanding of the relationship between the collection and processing of resources. Leave waste too long and it will no longer be usable; miss waste collection times and be forced to wait; and operate factories too poorly and more waste will 124

be made. The game ultimately transcribes complex yet pressing issues facing London today into a world that is designed to communicate the important of working together and being mindful of the waste we create in our daily lives, through work, leisure and in the home. Fig. 12.20 Stella Papaspyrou ‘The Ludic Sanatorium’. The game is constructed in 2D, turning the space of the drawing into a playable – or workable – zone. Like the ‘gold farmers’ of World of Warcraft, or the incessant drive for new ‘achievements’ in game worlds, the project asks whether our new regimes of leisure actually amount to new forms of immaterial labour. Within The Ludic Sanitorium, mundane, everyday activities from a work society become the repetitive leisure of a post-work, playful society.

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Research Cluster 14

Big Data City: Machine Thinking Urbanism

Student teams Depraved Urban Spaces Xinyi Li, Vasileia Panagiotopoulou, Ziyi Yang Perceptive Datascapes Apostolos Apostolopoulos, Caitlin Brock, Anna Kampani Urban Wave Decay Yu Han, Xiaoben Li, Guang Yang, Peng Zhou Synapse City Yingqi Huang, Chen-Chin In, Jiangrui Wan, Huan Yuan

Research Cluster 14 explores the role of big data and learning algorithms in urban design. Big data – commonly defined as the possibility to aggregate and mine large datasets by employing computers – is often understood as a series of abstract techniques without spatial or visual qualities. We challenge this perception by developing a research agenda in which the capabilities provided by ever-more powerful computation to mine data are used to question the role of urban design in the light of the ever-thinning distinction between man-made and natural environments.

Here, computation is aimed at including important elements of urbanity – which are either invisible or have been playing a peripheral role in the design process – in the design conversation. Through digital tools we can widen the range of what can be sensed, expanding to factors beyond human perception. Likewise, algorithms provide a means to mine data to augment the limits of our cognition, deeply changing how we interpret space. This shift allows us to collapse the distinction between natural and man-made artefacts, as the massive influence of human actions on Earth and its biosphere no longer allow us to maintain this separation.

The consequences of these observations can be profound: received notions of type, programme, site, representation, and inhabitation all need questioning. Within the cluster, students develop tools to sense, mine, and map existing conditions as dynamic, volumetric flows operating at varying scales. By computing large amounts of data, they not only ‘see’ sites, but also co-design them in conjunction with natural, dynamic forces whose complexity far exceeds the power designers have to control them.

Design is here understood as an instrument: not only for social transformation, but also, literally, as a device able to gather, compute, visualise, and generate data. This affects all aspects of urban space such as morphology, use, and performance, which are explored through machine intelligence and spatial analytics.

The projects shown here are all located in East London, and deal with issues of air pollution, acoustics, visual permeability, and flows of people and vehicles.

Theory tutor Annarita Papeschi Skills tutors Alican Inal, Kimon Krenz, Petros Koutsolampros, Vassilis Papalexopoulos Critics Stefania Boccaletti, Benjamin Bratton, Vera Bühlmann, Clara Jaschke, Frédéric Migayrou, Claudia Pasquero, Andrew Porter, Adrien Ravon, Mark Smout, Georg Vrachliotis

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Figs. 14.1 – 14.5 Depraved Urban Spaces This project’s urban approach is driven by the idea that atmospheric toxicity should not be confronted exclusively as a threat but as an existing dynamic element for potential design. The design is directly generated from the algorithmic correlation of local data on pollution, human inhabitation, vegetation, and circulation, to detect various levels of risk onsite. The emerging topological geometries divide into two broad types of interventions: a special skin for tall structures and a series of canopies for horizontal spaces. Fig. 14.1 Visualisation of the cluster analysis, identifying different areas of risk. Fig. 14.2 Rendering of the vertical structure: both the organic deformation of the massing of the emerging structures and the size and position of the openings are controlled by data simulations on pollution

as well as solar radiation. Fig. 14.3 Planimetric and threedimensional view of the proposal. The structural generation of the horizontal filtering system is based on catenary structures, driven by the local risk assessment of the site of intervention. The morphological complexity (and therefore the filtering capacity) is increased by the attachment of filtering units on the catenary skeleton. Fig. 14.4 Planimetric and three-dimensional view of the proposal. The structural generation of the horizontal filtering system is based on catenary structures, driven by the local risk assessment of the site of intervention. Fig. 14.5 The morphological complexity – and the filtering capacity – is increased by the attachment of filtering units, in order to act as a host for growth with a high capacity for absorbence and living

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resistance in areas with low solar radiation and low air quality.

They conflate artificial and natural materials, to absorb the pollutant in the air.

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Figs. 14.6 – 14.10 Perceptive Datascapes This project explores principles of physical and visual connectivity as a method of evaluating and generating new spatial solutions for public spaces in contemporary society. In deconstructing the notion of visual perception, the project questions what it means to create defensible space, challenging preconceived associations with the definition through the reconstruction of topography and form. Through the design of a system which evaluates an environment, in a real-time recursive process, this project offers a new opportunity for architects to create ‘defensible space’ in contemporary urban environments.

Figs. 14.6 – 14.7 ‘The perceptive factor’ is the method the team created to evaluate and interpret an area’s degree of porosity, permeability and security. It can be used to modify

and create space to address these issues. Through a recursive process, this system helps in the creation of new topographies and forms which encourage an interplay between human and inhuman intelligence. Fig. 14.8 Prototypes of various typologies of space proposed. Fig. 14.9 Rendering of the main public space. This proposal represents not only a designed system but an iteration and example of what the system can create. The internal rules of the computational mechanism have the potential to build spatial and social relationships by challenging the way we perceive space.

Fig. 14.10 The parameters of visual field, lighting and colour are analysed and used to map new interpretations of the city.

Machine learning algorithms, with linear data transformations, reveal similarities and patterns within the data. Through

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14.13 Figs. 14.11 – 14.15 Urban Wave Decay This project concentrates on an often-neglected element of the urban experience: sound. By operating at the scale of the entire neighbourhood, the project imagines distributing a series of small structures designed to either deflect, concentrate or altogether protect from sound. Digital and physical simulations of soundscapes were instrumental to generating a design method, controlling the distribution of structures, their materiality, and the range of programmes associated with them. The centrepiece of this urban strategy is a large public space that can operate as a market, open-air auditorium, and public space. Figs. 14.11 – 14.12 Digital simulation, testing various configuration of elements to deflect sound.

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the evaluation of specific configurations in order to test thousands of different options. Fig. 14.13 Detail of the physical model of the central public space proposed.

Fig. 14.14 The space is organised through three concentric layers made up of different types of structures: vertical barriers, horizontal elements guiding internal circulation, and large roof structure housing the more public programmes.

The density of such structures gradually reduces sound penetration while allowing easy access and porous circulation.

Fig. 14.15 View of the large roof covering the central space.

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Figs. 14.16 – 14.21 Flowscape Datasets about movement in urban spaces represent the circulation networks within cities, connecting all programmatic spaces and ensuring their functioning. The project aims to promote a more efficient and healthy circulation by working with the movement data and flows to propose a new multi-modal hub in East London.

Datasets are broadly divided according to their relation to energy, as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. By mining these datasets and directly linking them to control the form and programme distribution of the proposal, the final scheme mixes landscape, office and circulation into a single continuous landscape.

Fig. 14.16 Agent-based simulation of circulation and space syntax analysis, the design of the scheme evolved by refining the circulation pattern and the distribution of activities.

Fig. 14.17 Digital simulations showing the optimal organisation of the circulation within the project. Fig. 14.18 Physical model of the scheme. Fig. 14.19 Diagram showing the distribution of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ energy in the area. Figs. 14.20 – 14.21 Views of the overall proposal.

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Urban Morphogenesis Lab Lab Director: Claudia Pasquero

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Urban Morphogenesis Lab experiments with the application of recent scientific findings within unconventional computing at various scales of design, from objects to architecture and the urban. The aim of our research is to mobilise artificial and biological intelligence in search of a new mode of reasoning. We design within a complex milieu where multiple degrees of stability coexist, hacking into natural as well as artificial morphogenetic processes, in real time.

The projects developed by the lab engage with the notion of synthetic territory at different levels and scales, aiming to develop design models beyond standard conventions of humanly commensurable sizes and functions.

Methodologically, the lab operates within assemblages of objects which we have termed ‘Objects with Universal Relevance’ (OUR).

Each object allows novel tactics of interaction to emerge, while various models, supported by collective intelligence and spatial memory, reveal universal intervention strategies. Bottom-up and top-down models of planning become obsolete methods in the wake of OUR.

The lab is part of an international research network, Photosynthetica, developing speculative models operating at the intersection of design, biology and computation which propose aesthetic ways to question the way we live, see, and design contemporary cities. The current Urban Morphogenesis Lab teaching team includes designers Filippo Nassetti and Emmanouil Zaroukas. Lab Director Claudia Pasquero was named as one of the top ten world innovators in the WIRED Smart List 2017.

Together with the teaching activity carried out with Research Cluster 16, the lab has been engaging with activities such as exhibition curation, speculative planning, art installations, conferences and writing. Recent projects include ‘Solana Open Aviary’ for the Montenegro Pavillion at the Venice Architectural Biennale (2016); ‘Physa City’ for Menagerie of Microbes at Glasgow Science Centre (2016); ‘Anthropocene 136

Island’ for bioTallinn, Tallinn Architectural Biennale (2017); ‘SALT’ for Les Jardins Fluviaux de la Loire; ‘TURBULENT URBANITY’ at the Orleans Biennale (2017), FRAC Center; ‘Microbial Cellulose: metabolising urban waste’ for the BioTechHUT at EXPO 2017 Astana; ‘AirFlow Bioplastic’ for SuperMaterial (2017), Building Centre, London; ‘BIOFIBER: mobilising bombyx mori’s metabolic processes to speculate the urban’ for SuperCity Project at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2018. The team is currently working on a new project for the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

‘SuperTree’ at Futurium, Berlin, June 2018. SuperTree is an architectural apparatus that repurposes the tree to redefine its infrastructural operations as part of the present and future urbansphere. It transforms the archetype of the tree into a synthetic, high-resolution, high-productivity, fibrous photo-bioreactor, able to connect human metabolism to the proliferation of life within micro-algal ecologies. The project was developed by ecoLogicStudio and the Urban Morphogenesis Lab staff team as part of the Photosynthetica research network and has now been acquired by the ZKM collection in Karlsruhe. Photo: NAARO

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Urban Morphogenesis Lab On the Origin of the Inhuman City Claudia Pasquero with Filippo Nassetti

Student teams Physatopia Qin Qing, Jiayi Tu Bombyx Mori Weiyue Fu, Fei Fei, Chiawei Yang Fibrous XenoDerma Mengxuan Li, Xiaojun Liang The Spider Haoyi Chen, Xian Guo, Xiaoying Zhang Bio-Refractor Xiao Tan, Zaozao Wang, Xueyan Zhang The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Theory tutor Emmanouil Zaroukas Computation tutor Alessandro Zomparelli Critics Mario Carpo, Damiano Cerrone, Marcos Cruz, Andreas Kohler, Annarita Papeschi, Ana Pla de Catala, Marco Poletto, Antonino Di Raimo, Veronica Ranner, Patrik Schumacher, Theo Spyropoulos, Marco Vannucci, Melissa Woolford Partners Synthetic Landscape Lab, Innsbruck University; ecoLogicStudio; European Space Agency; UCL Department of Bio-Chemical Engineering; Noumena Wasp Hub

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Research Cluster 16’s projects aim to mobilise multiple forms of intelligence, human as well as non-human, to redefine the urban. Technological evolution – in the form of synthetic biology, bio-hacking, artificial intelligence, machine learning, nano-technologies – is presenting new scenarios in which the city can no longer be described using traditional categories such as natural and artificial, material and digital, human and not-human.

In this context, boundaries are blurred and objects become ambiguous; estrangement and discomfort, ambiguity and vagueness come together with novelty and disruption.

This year the cluster focused on spiders (Tarantula), silkworms (Bombyx mori), and slime mould (Physarum polycephalum) as actors in the design process and architectural agents. Biological models are coupled with digital simulations and drawing techniques to explore the design space between these different forms of intelligence.

What might the role of non-human creatures and micro-organisms in architecture be? Architecture as a discipline inherited the tendency to elevate humanity beyond its material substrate via its stronghold on rationality from modernity. But, can we develop a new vision wherein fungi, microorganisms, machines and all other communication devices become, alongside human beings, bio-citizens, contributing to a sophisticated system of collective intelligence, the founding process of a new morphogenetic city? How will the morphogenetic city look? Will notions such as urban, architecture, and the body become superseded? Is it possible to imagine a ‘post-natural’ design language?

The cluster engages with these questions by connecting biological models, digital simulations, and advanced fabrication technologies at different levels. Information is looped between the physical and the digital realm, extracted from material systems and processed in the digital environment, to be materialised through fabrication and thus fed back into matter. Often a digital simulation is coupled with a physical model, and the tension between the two is exploited as design engine. Ambiguity becomes a feature rather than problem to resolve.

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16.4 Fig. 16.1 Fibrous Xeno.Derma This project explores the potential of spider silk as a material system for architecture.

It aims to establish a new form of spider farming system in order to make the most of spider silk while preserving the spiders’ habitat. The project aims to provide a convenient method for collecting spider silk and to use outstanding silk as building material. The research focuses on the spinning behaviour of an Asian fawn spider. Given any substratum inside the cell, Asian fawn will keep spinning, whilst also predating and self-defending. The size of the cell can affect the size of the tube web and the density of the substratum, and further affect the amount of silk produced. After studying the spinning behaviour of the spider, we studied the substrata, exploring the influence of different sizes of cell and resolution.

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Working and experimenting with this non-human spaceconstructing intelligence, urban construction is revised, and a complex urban farming system for both spiders and humans is designed. Figs. 16.2 – 16.5 The Spider Cities in Australia, Brazil and America show high concentrations of spiders. While their presence is generally perceived to be a problem, their contribution to maintaining the balance of the ecosystem is usually overlooked. Moreover, scientific research shows that the silk produced by spiders is valuable for applications ranging from medicine to the fashion industry. This project suggests creating an infrastructure that integrates the city with populations of spiders, exploring the design of silk farming systems and spatial-temporal constructions that ultimately afford a mediation between human and non-human entities.

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16.7 Figs. 16.6 – 16.8 Bombyx Mori Humans are exploiting and redesigning the planet. Our evolution depends on other living and non-living matter. The urban silk farming proposed in this project is an example of humans acquiring bio-material from the non-human world. With the expanding application of silk material, more silk is needed in the modern city. However, the process of reeling and transporting silk causes environmental issues. In response to this, instead of resorting to a nostalgic revival of the past silk farming modes, this project proposes a post-farming system on an urban scale. Humans and silkworms are mediated and cohabit in productive ways. Instead of building silk farms, each citizen is regarded as a farming unit, producing and consuming their own silk products. The scale and distribution of the farming system depends on the 142

aggregation and dispersal of people within the urban environment. The system is portable and therefore able to constantly reprogramme the city, spatially as well as locally.

The project is therefore an exploration of the relationship between human settlements and post-silk-farming systems through a multi-scalar design method, one which spans from data transformation to a bodily territorial system.

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16.9 Figs. 16.9 – 16.10 Physatopia This project investigates the intelligence of Physarum polycephalum (slime mould) as a real-time model and a design method, to explore alternative ways of constructing and redefining the urban through a non-human perspective. By exploring the mould’s computing logic and bio-computation grammar, this project proposes a bio-computing apparatus, composed by Physarum polycephalum plasmodium as a programmable factor as well as a graphical interface. It looks at alternative ways of developing spatial reasoning and evaluates the application of this design method in a territorial scenario. The project’s vision contributes to a more ex-centric and non-anthropocentric perspective on design, through direct interaction with bio-artificial intelligence.

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16.12 Fig. 16.11 Fibrous Xeno.Derma Pattern study of biological skin according to environmental data. Fig. 16.12 Bio-Refractor While industrial culture has brought about the improvement of social living standards, big machine production has been continuously and unilaterally condensing natural resources into fossil fuels and compounds such as carbon dioxide.

This is a concentrated manifestation of incompatibility between industrial production and ecosystem: natural resources cannot stop being consumed, and industrial products and waste cannot be returned to the natural environment. This project starts with the microstructure of fibre, and uses it to reorganise the industrial system through the exploration of new building materials. The materials research focuses on the structure and properties of silk fibre 146

and the characteristics of bioplastic. These two sustainable and environmentally friendly materials can be combined into new fibrous felt for construction. Here, biotechnology replaces traditional silkworm farming to be used for the supply of raw materials, which means industrial production is no longer subject to geographical and environmental constraints and its scale can be redefined. As a consequence, integrated fibrous reactors take the place of traditional machinery, becoming a new production paradigm. As a kind of landscape in an urban environment, they can be arbitrarily assembled and split according to requirements. The resulting materials and energy are used for urban construction and community replenishment.

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16.14 Fig. 16.13 Physatopia Physarum polycephalum bio-computation as a real-time model. Slime mould minimal path system influenced by 3D-printed substratum. Fig. 16.14 The Spider Asian fawn tube web influenced by 3D-printed substratum.

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Research Cluster 17

Large City Architecture: The Fourth Part

Student teams Blockerties Junyi Bai, Anna Galika, Qiuru Pu NPoche Silu Meng, Ruohan Xu, Qianying Zhou Enframes Kexin Cao, Yue Jin, Qiming Li iiOOOI Sheghaf Abo Saleh, Hua Li, Chuwei Ye, Yaonaijia Zhou

As architects, we are faced with the incomprehensible challenge of constructing a city using only its buildings. When we design a building, the city is always a part of it, and the city is made and negotiated with buildings. As plot, as compartment wall, as courtyard, as window: the city is measured, regulated and moulded into specific parts of architecture.

This offers the opportunity to articulate the city through the sheer quantity of its parts. This is what we call: ‘large city architecture’.

Research Cluster 17 uses mereology, the study of part-relations, as a methodological framework to design a building as part of a city.

Departing from the individual, mereologies describe the overlaps between discrete entities, considered as parts. Mereological strategies ‘think’ a building through the partial aspects of its parts, using ideas of transference, reflection, and assembly: in short, sharing.

From distributive manufacturing to the internet of things: today’s concepts of sharing promise systematic shifts in the economy, industry, and beyond. From mass customisation to mass individualisation: the new participatory thinking is foundational, shifting the digital into the fourth industrial revolution. Beyond the digital, the acceleration and optimisation of mechanical processes has led to an entirely new socio-economic mindset, motivated by sheer quantity. It is no longer the performance or mode of an algorithm that drives change, but its participatory capacities.

In architecture, designing with parts progresses typological thinking.

Beyond considering a building as an analogy, machine or transformation, this fourth approach, the ‘fourth part’ manifests in four compositional resonances: through many parts, by ‘the particular between’, with participatory capacities, and as being partial.

Beyond urban form, the four projects we have carried out can be seen as the progress of and contradiction to classical design strategies linked to typological thinking. ‘NPoche’ progresses the architectural notion of the póche using computation. The drawing of that which is the same turns the hatching of a mass into a computed city of sameness, within which unfolds a heterogeneous human reality. ‘Blockerties’ deliberates property relations by hacking economic forms of distributive computation. By provoking partitioning in distributive chains, the project offers a new public space in the gaps of the computational enfilades of hyper-trading. ‘Enframes’ challenges topology using mereology. By framing the urban coincident as specific part, city grids turn into an enframing, urban condensate. ‘iiOOOI’ encapsulates the distinction between an inside and an outside in a partial entity, turning a building into a city of labyrinthine enfilades.

Teaching assistants Anqi Su, Christoph Zimmel Theory tutor Daniel Koehler Hosts, guests and critics Ana Abram, Stan Allen, Alisa Andrasek, Shajay Bhooshan, Roberto Bottazzi, Peter Eisenman, Stephen Gage, Octavian Gheorghiu, Herman Hertzberger, Michael Young, Winy Maas, Peter Massin, Frédéric Migayrou, Maj Plemenitas, Jordi Vivaldi Piera, Andrew Porter, Adrien Ravon, Dimitrie Stefanescu, Anqi Su, Emmanouil Zaroukas, Christoph Zimmel, Mateusz Zwierzycki

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17.3 Fig. 17.1 Collection of building parts sampled from existing buildings, used in the cluster’s projects. Figs. 17.2 – 17.4 Blockerties This project applies blockchain computation to the urban realm. Transferring the blockchain’s core concepts of data distribution through ledgers, to patterns of shared and privately owned spaces can lead to what we propose as polyphonic spaces, with overlapping uses. Fig. 17.2 From the block to a chain: while a building is usually described through its columns, floors, façades, or other elements of its structure, with the ‘blockchain’ description, elements have a compound meaning. Structural elements like walls and columns can be navigational or façade parts. The building is not composed of single layers added on top of each other, but investigates the inherent features of each one and connects them according to 150

cost, circulation and environmental needs. Fig. 17.3 Blockchain arrangements sorted by cost. Running speculations similar to economic narratives, we create chains that can increase private or shared spaces, or create voids or dense chains.

The aims are to decrease the cost and invert the ratio of private-to-shared. We searched for open spaces, high connectivity and distribution of value that gave us the cheapest form. Fig. 17.4 A proposal for an interchain arrangement in Johannesburg. Shared spaces take the place of road networks or pathways, or can become places for people to gather in.

Private entities can have a range of shareability according to the connectivity of the elements. This method creates polyphonic spaces with inherent features, like navigation, and structural definitions open to diverse readings.

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17.7 Figs. 17.5 – 17.8 NPoche. Cultivated during the 18th century in Paris, the term ‘poché’ refers primarily to the regular hatching of similar elements in a plan. From the brick to the wall, to the room, and so on, up to the whole ensemble of a city: buildings could be arranged as an accumulation of nested figures with the concatenation of wholes which become parts. The poché as an entity always consisted of a sum of individual parts, which led to the design of cornices, niches or patios; in short: poché-space’. Not to be confused with the concept of porosity, poché-space begins not with the distinction, but with the ambiguity between the one and the many; between the whole and its parts. Nowadays, gaining knowledge and making decisions depends increasingly on big data, the computation of large quantities. The NPoche project uses those reflections 152

to transform the poché into a contemporary methodology.

It shows how classification algorithms can be used in interplay with architectural form. Multi-dimensional classification is used to sort simulations consisting of self-aggregating housing parts. Agglomerations are selected which formulate the same local conditions: access, light, open space, and ventilation: computational poché-space turns into a ‘city of sameness’. Fig. 17.5 Groupings of poché-parts with two hours’ sun insolation on each terrace. Fig. 17.6 Poché-space with orange wall surfaces indicating two hours of sun exposure per day. Fig. 17.7 Plan study of a poché-space through the repetition of the same ratio of visibility. Fig. 17.8 Bird’s eye view: City of Sameness.

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17.10 Figs. 17.9 – 17.12 Enframes This project challenges topology with mereology. Considering the famous statement that a city is not a tree, the project approaches the city as a quantity of corners. The corner as the bumping into each other, the city as the physical enframing of exchange. The corner interpreted as a coincidental meeting point, embracing places and enclosing crossings. In the footsteps of the space-concept of enframing, the project accelerates the urban coincident, condensing the topological measure of ‘cityness’ into a configuration of partial frames. Fig. 17.9 Building a computational model of enframing, counting the layering, nesting and stacking of enframing figuration. Figs. 17.10 – 17.12 Applications of the enframing method at different urban scales, with the frame as slab, as room, and as wall.

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17.14 Figs. 17.13 – 17.16 iiOOOI This project encapsulates the distinction between inside and outside, turning a building into a city of labyrinthic enfilades. iiOOOI begins with the sampling of inside-outside situations between buildings and their city.

With this, a city can be computed as a sequence of nested ‘(in-)teriors’, lined up one after the other, and into each other; as an urban enfilade. Fig. 17.13 All samples distinguish between an inside and an outside first and foremost. The (in-)teriors expose a kind of computation that starts from a thermodynamic discreteness which enables a particular space sequence that allows users to experience different levels of space through one building, and brings up the notion of the building-in-a building. Beyond being a technical void space, the project sees ventilation as a mode of pre-human computation at the 156

urban scale. Fig. 17.14 Figure-figuration: plan studies based on the simultaneous design of a repetitive inside-outside-figure and its plan figuration. Fig. 17.15 Computing in an existing context. With the thoughtful placement of (in-)teriors the ventilation pattern in a city can be altered. For this purpose, building forms of different sizes can be developed: here, an urban block is proposed. Fig. 17.16 Sequences of nested (in-)teriors. Generated studies exploring the nesting and layering of inside-outside arrangements.

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Research Cluster 18

Bridging Across Mass Customisation

Students Sultanah Alaboud, Raya Bechara, Luis Carlos Castillo Huaman, Farnoosh Fanaian, Tianda Ge, Hongyi Du, Haeam Jung, Jinyi Li, Xi Li, Peixin Shi, Khiaw Tan, Yiting Tang, Guangzhao Yang

Urban design is currently cornered in a paradox: despite technology being an essential aspect and the most visible component for projects, urban design is not a problem with a technical solution. The value component of the urban project has its grounds in Garrett Hardin’s seminal article ‘The Tragedy of Commons’ (1968) in which he describes how individuals are trapped in a dilemma between exhausting common pools of resources and not benefitting from them at all.

Contemporary computer sciences – more precisely, big data technologies – of searching and information retrieval constitute a new paradigm in the history of the scientific method. This artificial form of thinking derives from the traditional anthropocentric cognitive method based on observation, hypothesis and experimental verification. Unlike human thinking, machines’ competitive advantage is based on their capacity to manage large datasets, allowing them an heuristic way of building knowledge through trial, error and searching. This human vs. machine thinking dis-analogy is accelerating, becoming more present in all aspects of our everyday lives and ultimately a distinctive feature of contemporary civilisations across the globe.

This accelerated dis-analogy presents an opportunity for the development of new design methodologies in the city. A symbiotic relationship between human thinking and machine thinking is widening the boundaries, from how architecture can be produced at 1:1 scale, to our awareness and understanding of the large-scale impact of environmental systems and emerging socio-economic structures on our ecosystems. Research Cluster 18 taps this opportunity, investigating how back-end computing infrastructure (a subordinate processor not directly accessed by the user which performs a specialised function) and front-end computing infrastructure (a device or programme directly accessed by the user) can boost our urban interventions. We look at the link between digital fabrication and social media as an opportunity for urban hacking; specifically, how to bridge the mass customisation of user products to pursue a collective project.

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Theory Tutor Nuria Alvarez Lombardero

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Figs. 18.1 – 18.5 Farnoosh Fanaian, Luis Carlos Castillo Huaman, Haeam Jung ‘Prosthetic Ecologies: An empathetic network of computational geology’. Benjamin Bratton’s (2015) concept of viewing cities as an integrated system of interdependent layers suggests the development of a new territory that acts as an interface to connect the various components of a complex urban system. This project proposes a new governable stratum capable of functioning as a prosthetic enhancement to the Earth’s crust. This ‘epidermis for the Earth’ actuates as a living infrastructure that is customised by human beings, natural systems and artificial intelligence. It acts as a hidden layer that utilises natural parameters to inform a computational approach towards the design of this new territory, providing a rich

database of geological parameters for the design of a precise habitat customised for plant growth. The new mineral intelligence displays the three essential properties – soilporosity, permeability and surface tension – that allow for a strategic enhancement to the potential city’s terrain. This new territory accommodates infinite subdivisions at various scales of geo-political and digital governance. The aim of this project is to propose a design process based on reading, actuating and adapting systems; moving away from centralised and distributed networks to a localised production network; and engaging users (human and non-human) within an empathetic network, to customise urban territories.

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Figs. 18.6 – 18.9 Sultanah AlAboud, Raya Bechara ‘Followers not Friends’. In the world of social media, Instagram dominates the field of influencers and advertisement. Today, influencers set the new tones and trends. People choose their destinations and behaviours in the city according to what is preset by influencers on Instagram and to what is considered an ‘Instagrammable space’. Social media distorts our reality and reshapes our experiences through the concept of influencers.

Fig. 18.7 ‘Computer Vision’. After learning about distortion from social media platforms, the mechanism was tested on regular grids which were distorted to form newer shapes.

Later, research was conducted to understand how computers envision reality and how they ‘see’ the final form. The image is a representaiton of how computers see the final distorted

grid through edge detection and scanning. Fig. 18.8 ‘AR Vision’.

An analysis of augmented reality (AR) vision concluded that its requirements are light, colour contrast, surfaces and scale.

Fig. 18.9 ‘Scene The City’. The AR-gamified experience app, developed to give the user a tool for originality. This ‘library of knowledge’ gives offers the chance to mass customise the city through an interactive interface. It introduces new mechanisms using AR systems that obey open-source principles, human interaction and collective authorship, giving new fabric to the urban environment.

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Figs. 18.10 – 18.13 Hongyi Du, Peixin Shi, Yiting Tang ‘Memory Holder: Rethinking an invisible city’. A city is an array of individuals. We can see it with a full view only with collectives. In this project, two collectives, human and non-human, are studied as objects. Fig. 18.10 Memory involves the intelligence of a collective and the trajectory of time. The project looks into the human memory through a computational eye, which presents the joint perspectives of human and computer. Fig. 18.11 An interface that visualises energy consumption in different regions and periods. Citizens can discover a new ‘invisible city’ and respond to urban energy use. Fig. 18.12 The team collected the images from Instagram and reproduced them with a computational perspective. The computational design returns to its object, a gasholder, as its

surface to visualise and illustrate the invisible. Fig. 18.13 The city is not only about humans: non-humans also bring their own perspective and collective intelligence to build another valuable unique invisible city. The project uses the gasholder to provide a platform to let public see the invisible city from different perspectives.

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Figs. 18.14 – 18.17 Tianda Ge, Xi Li ‘Light as Material: Mass Customised Artificial Light for Public Space Activation’. This project applies digital technology to control the urban lighting environment, which affects individual perception, regenerates the character of urban spaces, and can mass customise spaces based on the physical environment and pedestrian behaviour. Fig. 18.14 Applying machine learning to urban systems. Fig. 18.15 The project uses computer vision to identify the light environment within the space and present the digitised light data as a physical model. Fig. 18.16 A sensor controls the light environment through human behaviour.

Fig. 18.17 Light is controlled through the individual units to customise the environment for residents.

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Figs. 18.18 – 18.20 Jinyi Li, Khiaw Yong Tan, Guangzhao Yang ‘Autonomous Campus’. This project envisions a new urban design paradigm, speculating on autonomous mobility technologies – computer vision and machine learning, to co-create an alternative self-organised urban form with its nature capital (analysed here with NDVI Datascape) as priority.

Fig. 18.17 Optimised autonomous routing options generated from sensed and internet of things (IoT) data to navigate the blue and green infrastructure, with its complex mosaiced ecological growth during different climatic seasons. Spectral analysis using amalgamated timelapse senses space data over different climatic seasons. Fig. 18.18 A mass customised, multi-material additive-manufactured individual unit. The individual unit constitutes an element that is autonomously

mobile, adaptable to its sensed interior and external environment via pneumatic actuated architecture. In a community with others, it forms a dynamic collective urban form. Fig. 18.19 Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) thermal sensed space in the internal environment allows users to mass customise the individual units’ architectural forms. Eventually this allows several variations to emerge.

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Architectural C omputation M Sc/MRes

Architectural Computation MSc/MRes Programme Director: Manuel Jiménez Garcia

Students Konstantinos Chatzimanolis, Bei Chu, Jaesik Chun, Daniel Marcelo González González, Julia Maria Hannu, Abdulkadir Kaçan, Alexandros-Spyridon Kokas, George Manoti, Saba Sadat Mirmotalebi, Ivo Tedbury, Taitawip Thirapongphaiboon, Ho-Wan To, Yican Wu, Bárbara Andrade Zandavali

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Teaching staff Ava Fatah gen Schieck, Sam Griffiths, Sean Hanna, Andy Lomas, Vicente Soler, Martha Tsigkari Teaching assistants Khaled El-Ashry, Sherif Eltarabishy, Marcin Kosicki, Vasileios Papalexopoulos, Stamatios Psarras, Vlad Tenu

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The Bartlett’s Architectural Computation MSc/MRes programmes engage and advances the main technologies by which tomorrow’s architecture will be designed and constructed. The courses are designed to provide students with the depth of understanding to exploit computation fully in the context of world-leading design, research and industry. But we also see computation as a technology, driving fundamental shifts in industry and society, and – more radically – one that can change the way we produce and think.

To this end, the learning of technical knowledge, such as computer coding, plays a stronger role than in many comparable courses, not only as a skill, but as a framework for thought. This technical knowledge is supported by a broad theoretical understanding of the algorithms and philosophies of artificial intelligence and related domains.

The theory modules set up the use of computation in the design process, ranging from analysis in terms of space and structure, to using artificial intelligence techniques to learn about design performance, and ultimately the role of computation in creativity. Practice modules are divided into studio-based clusters, allowing students to develop their personal interest within a large range of themes, including technologies of interaction, cybernetics, physics simulations, artificial intelligence, automation and robotic manufacturing. A third stream of ‘skills’ modules teaches research skills and programming, from foundation to advanced level, guiding students through the multiple possibilities that computation offers in design environments.

This year’s students have engaged with a wide range of digital media and tools to develop their projects through studio modules, workshops and lectures. The taught modules and thesis produced research projects that ranged from exploring computational methods for automated construction, augmented reality applications for the built environment or optimisation applications, to developments of artificial intelligence for space navigation and pattern generation.

Students also participated in focused workshops in physical computing, robotics and machine-human interaction, as well as travelling on field trips to engage with the history and the wider community of computational architecture. We explored the origins of computing at Bletchley Park and visited some of the most cutting-edge research environments at Harvard GSD and MIT Media Lab (Boston, USA).

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AC.2 Figs. AC.1 – AC.3 Daniel Marcelo González González ‘simplyInterlocking’. Current approaches to digital fabrication seek to generate interlocking complex geometries through the exploitation of specific permutations in order to standardise parts for production and assembly, but the elements rely mostly on other connective systems. Current 3D puzzles consist of parts which follow interlocking logic to facilitate tectonics, but the pieces are too irregular to discretise, given an input shape, which is important for pre-fabrication.

The purpose of this research is to generate reversible blocks given an input discretised shape, for the generation of interlocking structures. Generating parts with the potential for reversibility is important for flexibility and its rationalisation into digital materials to assemble following algorithmic logic in 174

diverse 3D topologies. The project explored computational approaches to combinatorial design and 3D puzzles to gain an understanding of the specific rules that tectonic structures need in order to achieve interlocking and ease of assembly within a system. These parameters then served as reference to be tested for different behaviours. The algorithm aims to reduce entropy in an effort to achieve less complex parts, and to increase their rationalisation into finite sets. By localising the interlocking behaviour it is possible to replicate the parts’ geometric qualities for a given structure to aid in the completion of the assemblies after a series of iterations. The discrete elements are derived from a voxelised shape: its geometric qualities correspond to its interlocking requirements for the generation of its complex reversible assembly.

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AC.4 Fig. AC.4 Ho-Wan To ‘Evolutionary Algorithm for City Generation’. This project takes inspiration from natural selection and applies it to simulate 3D virtual cities. Software was created using the game engine Unity, allowing the user to create and save buildings, roads, and parks. As a test case, this was used to simulate the growth of an area of London over the last 60 years. This method represents a novel approach to generating dynamic content that changes over time and could potentially be used in computer game assembly.

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Figs. AC.5, AC.7 Bárbara Andrade Zandavali ‘Automated Brick Pattern Generator for Robotic Assembly using Machine Learning and Images’. This research proposes a framework for automated brickwork using a machine learning model based on image-toimage translation. The framework consists of creating a dataset, training a model for each bond, and converting the output images into vector data for robotic assembly. The model definition considered criteria such as: reaching wall boundary accuracy, avoidance of unsupported bricks, and brick position accuracy. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework easily translates the bonding patterns and fulfils the criteria, shedding light on an innovative method of representation using images. Moreover, the association of this method with ‘self-calibrating’ robots could be easily

implemented onsite using available technology. Figs. AC.6, AC.8, AC.9 Ivo Tedbury ‘Relative Robotic Bricklaying’. This project explores the automated assembly of brick masonry using ‘relative robotics’ – where a construction robot can move relative to the object it is assembling. A physical prototype was designed, fabricated and tested, performing the series of fundamental actions required (picking, walking, climbing and placing). Digital simulations in the game engine Unity allowed the prototype to be tested on a variety of larger structures, using custom control software to calculate additional structures, pathfinding and required actions.

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AC.12 Figs. AC.10, AC.13 Alexandros-Spyridon Kokas ‘Investigation of porous and rough geometries as building envelopes against the downdraught effect’. This project examines porous and rough geometries acting as building envelopes, and the degree to which they can mitigate the downdraught effect. The focus of the project is to test these geometries under a fast fluid dynamic simulation, evaluate their performance and evolve them through a genetic algorithm. The results of the study show that the utilisation of these geometries as building envelopes decreases the amount of air that reaches ground level, and therefore mitigates the downdraught effect.

Fig. AC.11 Jaesik Chun ‘Agent-based simulation for choice of seating’. This project provides a tool for investigating people’s possible staying patterns over spatial configurations and seat 178

arrangements, and examines its influence on a planned space and existing space from the perspective of users. A visibility graph is investigated and developed to map the patterns of visitors’ cognitions on spatial configurations. An agent simulation is developed on the visibility graph, reflecting the tendency to stay a certain distance from others and uncertainty, which is a human-like cognition. Fig. AC.12 Jaesik Chun ‘Intermodal Proximity Analysis of London’.

This project draws proximity maps with TFL journey duration data. In contrast to traditional proximity analysis, which is represented as the radius of a circle, this proximity analysis tool draws a proximity map of a location in London based on intermodal journey duration available in the city, such as a bus, tube, train or walked journey.

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AC.16 Fig. AC.14 Saba Sadat Mirmotalebi ‘Growing Venation Structures’. This thesis aims to combine open-ended and closed-off growth, using space colonisation algorithms to create structures able to accommodate wide areas of load-bearing surfaces and limitations in location, size and placement. A convergence of two space colonisation algorithms is used to create a hybrid structure which is structurally analysed. These forms are then fed into a genetic algorithm to search the problem parameters and find optimum solutions. Fig. AC.15 Konstantinos Chatzimanolis ‘Generalising an Evaluation Method for Discrete Fabrication Models’. This project examines a new generalised method for the evaluation of the digital fabrication models of freeform shapes. The aim of the computational model is to offer a better 180

insight into discrete fabrication models in terms of representational accuracy according to the reference shape, and discretisation efficiency according to the available manufacturing technology. The computational investigation creates a live feedback application with an interactive interface. The designer participates in an iterated feedback loop, by regenerating and optimising the input mesh according to the evaluation data provided. Fig. AC.16 Yican Wu ‘The Evolved ANN Agent’. Agent-based analysis is playing an increasingly important role in spatial design due to the fact that a sound agent-based analysis can provide an insight into the intrinsic characteristics of the a space by simulating the likely behaviour of people. This research aims to compare an artificial neural network (ANN) agent with the line-of-sight

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AC.20 (LoS) agent to see which one of them can provide better spatial analysis. The agents are compared in two simulated gallery spaces. Even though the ANN agent has a fairly high exploring efficiency and is able to roughly reproduce humans’ aggregate movement with a correlation coefficient at 0.67, the simpler LoS agent’s overall performance is better. The comparison between the complex ANN agent and simple LoS agent can help us better understand how these agents behave in simulation and thus informs us when we use them to conduct spatial analysis. Figs. AC.17 – AC.20 Taitawip Thirapongphaiboon ‘Spatial Distribution of Building Use: Recognition and prediction of use with machine learning’.

Economics and social processes are primary contributors to the creation of cities. They also lead to the spatial

configuration or the physical space of the city. A spatial configuration propels the characteristics of its own area, which can be mathematically evaluated. This mathematical evaluation can be called a ‘spatial measure’. With a certain set of spatial measures, we may be able to predict and explain spatial phenomena. This research aims to create a machine learning model that can predict the spatial distribution of building uses, or spatial phenomena, using only a set of spatial measures and examining the correlations between the syntactic signature and building types.

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Figs. AC.21 – AC.23 Julia Maria Hannu ‘Material distribution with a natural system’. Nature creates complex, intricate, multifaceted and highly efficient structures constructed of lattices, graduated in terms of both mass and composition.

These structures appear to emerge entirely through self-organisation processes. This project aims to employ the natural system of reaction diffusion in order to control the distribution of materials within a structure. It asks if a three-dimensional reaction diffusion could create lattices with similar gradiances to meet the multiple requirements of architectural structures. However, reaction diffusion is a complex multi-dimensional system which makes both the application and the navigation challenging. It exhibits multiple behaviours in terms of pattern formation, but the relationships

between the patterns and the parameters used to create them are difficult to foresee. Therefore, a framework was developed to be able to produce intentional transitions between behaviours of a potentially graduated structure. A Kohonen network was used for dimensionality reduction and to visualise the parameter space to be able to identify multiple points of interest. These were then analysed from the perspective of their potential in a structural composition with the measures of change rate, stability, connectivity and mass. From this, behaviours of specific interest could be identified and some gradiences in the scale of a pattern were successfully created.

However, to make transitional changes in a pattern’s composition was more challenging. To create a gradient pattern, and avoid a border or a gap between, we need to

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interpolate between the behaviours used to create the patterns. Even if two behaviours individually create fully connected patterns, a pattern with a transition between might not. Therefore, to retain some essential qualities, such as full connectivity, the transition had to transcend alternative points in the parameter space. This highlights that the Kohonen map should be extended to suggest paths between points for transitions with intended qualities. Further, to explore the full potential of the system for creating functionally graduated structures, additional analysis should be performed at an architectural scale.

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B-Pro Staff Biographies

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Professor Frédéric Migayrou B-Pro Director Frédéric Migayrou is Chair, Bartlett Professor of Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture and Deputy Director of the MNAM-CCI (Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre de Création Industrielle) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

He was founder of the FRAC Centre Collection and of ArchiLab, the international festival of prospective architecture in Orléans. As well as recent publications and exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou (De Stijl, 2011; La Tendenza, 2012; Bernard Tschumi, 2013; Frank Gehry, 2014; Le Corbusier, 2015), he was also the curator of Non-Standard Architectures at the Centre Pompidou in 2003, the first exposition devoted to architecture, computation and fabrication.

More recently, he co-organised the exhibition Naturalising Architecture (ArchiLab, Orléans, 2013), presenting prototypes and commissions by 40 teams of architects working with new generative computational tools, defining new interrelations between materiality, biotechnology and fabrication. In 2012, Frédéric founded B-Pro, a family of advanced postgraduate courses at The Bartlett.

Andrew Porter B-Pro Deputy Director Andrew Porter studied at The Bartlett School of Architecture, winning the Bannister Fletcher Medal and the RIBA Silver Medal for his graduation project. He has collaborated on projects with Sir Peter Cook and Christine Hawley CBE, and was the project architect for the Gifu Housing project in Japan. He practises with Abigail Ashton as Ashton Porter Architects and has completed a number of award-winning commissions in the UK and abroad. Andrew is Design Tutor for Unit 21 of The Bartlett’s Architecture MArch programme and has been a visiting professor at the Staedel Academy, Frankfurt and guest critic at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles and Parsons New School, New York.

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Roberto Bottazzi Urban Design MArch Programme Director, Research Cluster 14 Tutor Roberto Bottazzi is an architect, researcher, and educator based in London. He studied in Italy and Canada before moving to London.

His research analyses the impact of digital technologies on architecture and urbanism.

He is the author of Digital Architecture beyond Computers: Fragments of a Cultural History of Computational Design (Bloomsbury, 2018) and editor of Walking Cities: London (Camberwell Press, 2017). He has lectured and exhibited internationally in the UK, USA, China, Italy, and Portugal.

Manuel Jiménez Garcia Architectural Computation MSc/MRes Programme Director, Design Computation Lab Director, Research Cluster 4 Tutor Manuel Jiménez Garcia is the co-founder and principal of madMdesign, a computational design practice based in London, and the co-founder of Nagami, a robotics manufacturing start-up based in Spain. Manuel’s work has been exhibited worldwide in venues including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. As well as directing the MSc/ MRes Architectural Computation programme, directing the Design Computation Lab and leading Research Cluster 4, Manuel also curates Plexus, a multidisciplinary computational design lecture series at The Bartlett.

Gilles Retsin Architectural Design MArch Programme Director, Design Computation Lab Director, Research Cluster 4 Tutor Gilles Retsin is the founder of Gilles Retsin Architecture, a young award-winning London based architecture and design practice, investigating new architectural models that engage with the potential of increased computational power and fabrication to generate

Ana Abram Research Cluster 11 Tutor Ana Abram is a chartered landscape architect and urbanist whose work bridges academia, research and practice. She has led design and research teams and has delivered projects through all stages to completion. Her research work is based on an understanding of physical, natural and ecological contexts through complex design and computational syntheses, while engaging with territorial, urban and natural systems. She is a co-founder of the practice Amphibious Lab, which focuses on dynamic landscapes and their interfaces with anthropogenic environments. Ana has lectured at institutions including the AA, the University of Melbourne, Australia and AIA New York.

Richard Beckett BiotA Lab Director, Research Cluster 7 Tutor Richard Beckett is a Lecturer in Architecture and Director of BiotA Lab at The Bartlett. His background involves teaching and research in both architecture and biochemistry and he has expertise in bio-design, digital manufacturing, and material development. He is currently Principal Investigator on an AHRC-funded antimicrobial resistance research project entitled ‘Niches for Organic Territories in Bio-Augmented Design’, in collaboration with the Eastman Dental Institute, UCL.

Dr Nuria Alvarez Lombardero Research Cluster 18 Theory Tutor Nuria Alvarez Lombardero studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the AA. After working for Machado & Silvetti Associates in Boston, she co-founded the London and Seville-based office CanalesLombardero. As well as teaching theory at The Bartlett, she has taught design at the AA, University of Cambridge, TEC Monterrey and the University of Seville. After finishing her PhD on the dissolution of boundaries traced by modern urban planning, she has published different articles in international magazines and various books, including the two awardwinning books Politic of Fabrication: an ongoing debate (ViBok, 2016) and Arquitectas: Redefining the Practice (Recolectores Urbanos, 2016).

Stefan Bassing Research Cluster 6 Tutor Stefan Bassing is an architect, product designer and educator. His work is focused on contemporary design methodologies involving digital sculpting, algorithmic modelling and object-orientated research for the capacity to comprehend and respond to design tasks on a multiplicity of scales. Based in the UK, he received

Daghan Cam Research Cluster 1 Tutor Daghan Cam is the CEO and co-founder of Ai Build, a London-based company that develops artificial intelligence and robotics for large-scale additive manufacturing. He is also a visiting lecturer at The Bartlett, focusing on robotic fabrication, 3D printing and parallel algorithms with GPU computing. Having studied at the AA, Daghan has worked at Zaha Hadid Architects and now runs his own architectural design practice.

Mollie Claypool Design Computation Lab Director, Research Cluster 4 Theory Tutor Mollie Claypool is a Lecturer in Architecture at The Bartlett. Mollie co-directed the Architecture BSc programme from 2014-2018 and was Design Tutor for Unit 19 from 2012-2018.

Professor Marcos Cruz BiotA Lab Director, Research Cluster 7 Tutor Marcos Cruz is a Professor of Innovative Environments and Director of BiotA Lab. He has developed an extensive career as a researcher and educator, having led Architecture MArch Unit 20 for over 18 years. In addition to holding the directorship of The Bartlett (2010-14), he has also taught at UCLA, University of Westminster and is currently Visiting Professor at the IaaC, Barcelona. Marcos has published and lectured 187

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his architectural education in Stuttgart, Sydney and London. In the role of the design architect he has developed numerous projects ranging in scale from masterplans to interiors, working amongst others for the late Zaha Hadid. He is currently working with Studio Ross Lovegrove as the practice’s Director of Computation and Advanced Technologies.

B-Pro Staff Biographies

buildings and objects with a previously unseen structure, detail and materiality. He graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) Design Research Lab in London. Prior to founding his own practice, he worked in Switzerland with Christian Kerez. His work has been exhibited internationally, and is part of the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

widely and is co-founder of the architecture practice marcosandmarjan. His research on Neoplasmatic Architecture won the RIBA’s Research Award in 2008, and from 2015-17 he was the Principal Investigator of an EPSRC-funded ‘Design the Future’ research project entitled ‘Computational Seeding of Bioreceptive Materials’.

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Gareth Damian Martin Research Cluster 12 Theory Tutor Gareth Damian Martin is a writer, game designer and artist. He is the editor and creator of the games and architecture zine Heterotopias and his writing has appeared in Frieze, Kotaku, Eurogamer, PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun.

He was recently nominated for the prestigious New York Videogame Critics’ Circle Journalism Award and his work as a game photographer has appeared at the Photographers’ Gallery London, and in the British Journal of Photography. Gareth is also a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway University of London, dealing with radical narrative structures in procedurally generated literature.

Ava Fatah gen Schieck Architectural Computation Tutor Ava Fatah gen Schieck is Associate Professor (Reader) in Media Architecture and Urban Digital Interaction. She has been involved in the Architectural Computation programme since its inception and brings expertise in the areas of media architecture, human-computer interaction and performance, with the focus on sensory environments, and human behaviour mediated through mixed reality. Her research is practicebased, where she leads a unique longitudinal living ‘Media Architecture’ lab investigating responsive and location-based computing within the urban context. Ava lectures internationally and has published extensively on the transformation and acquisition of urban space through new media. She is chair of the Media Architecture Biennale Conference.

Zachary Fluker Research Cluster 18 Tutor Zachary Fluker is the co-founder of the architectural practice AO-FT. Prior to becoming an architect, he studied industrial design and worked as a cabinetmaker. He is a graduate of both Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the AA. His research into interfacing digital and physical environments and computational 188

fabrication has led him to collaborate with several practices in the UK and Canada.

Octavian Gheorghiu Research Cluster 3 Tutor Octavian is an architect, production designer and design researcher. He graduated from the AA and now works within a research group at Foster + Partners. His desire to understand human need and perception related to the built environment has led to research and development of new technologies ranging from autonomous cars to outer-space colonies. Octavian is interested in computational intelligence, additive construction and the application of new technologies to architecture and design.

Dr Sam Griffiths Architectural Computation MSc/MRes Tutor Sam Griffiths is Associate Professor in the Space Syntax Laboratory at The Bartlett. His research interests include the historical relationship between the built environment and urban life, and space syntax as an interdisciplinary approach in urban theory and design. He is co-editor (with Alex von Lünen) of Spatial Cultures: towards a new social morphology of cities past and present (Routledge, 2016) and is currently working on a monograph on the historical urban built environment for Routledge.

Dr Kostas Grigoriadis Research Cluster 8 Tutor Kostas Grigoriadis studied Architecture at UCL, followed by a Master’s in Architecture and Urbanism at the AA’s Design Research Laboratory. He has been a Diploma Unit Master at the AA since 2011 and an External Examiner in Architecture at the University of East London since August 2015. He previously worked for Foster + Partners in London and held a Visiting Lectureship at the Royal College of Art, where he also completed a PhD in Architecture by Project in June 2017 that focused on multi-material design methodologies. He edited the book Mixed Matters: A Multi-Material Design Compendium, published in June 2016 by Jovis Verlag.

Soomeen Hahm Research Cluster 9 Tutor Soomeen Hahm is a design researcher, educator and architectural designer, and the founder of SoomeenHahm Design Ltd, a London-based design studio focusing on design research and practice tackling the issues of computational

Adam Holloway Research Cluster 5 Tutor Adam Holloway is an architect and computational designer whose work focuses on the intersection of art and science, applying principles from natural and technological innovation to extend the scope of human creative potential. Adam studied at the AA, and previously worked at Future Systems, Wilkinson Eyre and Exploration, before setting up his own practice, AHA. He runs an MArchD studio at Oxford Brookes University and teaches a computational design module at Westminster University, as well as being an Architectural Design tutor at The Bartlett.

Tyson Hosmer Research Cluster 3 Tutor Tyson Hosmer is an Associate at Zaha Hadid Architects working with the Computation and Design group. His current research there focuses on the application of machine learning with agent-based systems. He has over ten years of experience working in international architecture offices including Axi:Ome, Asymptote Architecture, Kokkugia, and Cecil Balmond Studio where he was the Research Director for several years. Before joining The Bartlett, he taught for six years with the AA Design Research Lab.

Sheng-Yang (William) Huang Research Cluster 8 Theory Tutor William Huang is an architectural designer, researcher and B-Pro theory tutor. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Architecture and Digital Theory at The Bartlett School of Architecture, exploring new architecture machines based on connectionist artificial intelligence. An architect by training, he completed a BArch and an MArch II in Taiwan and received an MRes in Architecture and Digital Theory with distinction from The Bartlett. Before joining The Bartlett in 2014, William worked with MAYU architects+ as a project designer and for National Chiao Tung University as a research assistant. He also taught digital design and fabrication at Cheng Shiu University.

Alexandros Kallegias Research Cluster 1 Theory Tutor Alexandros Kallegias is an architectural engineer who studied at Patras University in Greece, and the AA’s Design Research Lab in London. His practice background includes being a Senior Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects, and a BIM Coordinator for projects in different countries.

Alexandros’ research focuses on exploring generative design techniques, incorporating design through coding coupled with large-scale digital fabrication tools. His work includes the investigation of urban data and biomimetics as drivers for design, interaction and robotics in architecture. His research has been presented and published in peer-reviewed reports and international publications like eCAADe, CAAD Futures and SimAUD, among others.

Dr Daniel Koehler Research Cluster 17 Tutor, Research Cluster 17 Theory Tutor, Architectural Design MArch History and Theory Coordinator Daniel Koehler is an architect, urbanist, researcher and educator. He has taught at several institutions, including Sci-Arc, Städelschule, Aalto University, Vilnius Academy of Arts and the University of East London. He graduated from the Angewandte in Vienna and holds a PhD in Urban Design from the University of Innsbruck, where he is a Postdoctoral Research Associate. He is cofounder of the Lab for Environmental Design Strategies, lab-eds. Daniel is the author of the 189

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Dr Sean Hanna Architectural Computation MSc/MRes Tutor Sean Hanna is Reader in Space and Adaptive Architectures at The Bartlett and Departmental Graduate Tutor for the MPhil/ PhD programmes in Architectural Space and Computation, and Architecture and Digital Theory. He is a member of the UCL Space Syntax Laboratory, one of the UK’s leading groups in built environment research.

His research is primarily in computational methods for dealing with complexity in design and the built environment, including the comparative modelling of space, and the use of machine learning and optimisation techniques for the design and fabrication of structures.

Tyson is interested in embedding localised artificial intelligence in non-linear organisational systems, applied in a design process.

B-Pro Staff Biographies

paradigms in architecture across multiple scales and perspectives. She specialises in design through coding, digital simulations and 3D modelling techniques and is interested in generative computation. Her research looks at the ecology of computational power, technology and human intuition, and how this collaboration impacts on the design industry and the physical environment.

book The Mereological City, a study of the modes of part-relations between architecture and its city during modernism. He co-organises the B-Pro Prospectives lecture series.

Ruby Law Research Cluster 5 Theory Tutor Ruby Law currently works with Studio Seilern Architects as a Project Architect. She studied architecture in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Massachusetts before graduating from The Bartlett. Her previous work experience includes Heatherwick Studio and Zaha Hadid Architects.

She is interested in digital fabrication and material engineering. Her work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Rome, Venice, and London.

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Dr Guan Lee Material Architecture Lab Director, Research Cluster 5 Tutor Guan Lee is an architect, lecturer, and director of Grymsdyke Farm. He studied at McGill University, Montreal, the AA and The Bartlett School of Architecture, where he completed his doctoral studies on the relationship between architectural craft, making and site. In his own practice, Guan explores digital fabrication in conjunction with hands-on building processes using a range of materials, including clay, concrete and plaster.

Enriqueta Llabres-Valls Research Cluster 18 Tutor Enriqueta Llabres-Valls is an architect and TEDx fellow. She graduated from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona with a Master’s degree in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics. She has taught at the The Berlage Institute in the Netherlands and the Landscape Architecture Department at Harvard GSD. She joined The Bartlett in 2012.

Enriqueta’s practice, Relational Urbanism, received the Arup Global Challenge Award in 2009 and the Singapore Urban Bridge Award, a governmental award given jointly by Singapore and UK, in 2017.

Andy Lomas Architectural Computation MSc/MRes Tutor Andy Lomas is a digital fine artist and Emmy award-winning supervisor of computer-generated effects. Andy studied mathematics at Trinity College Cambridge, and spent 25 years working on visual effects and animation productions including ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’, ‘The Matrix: Reloaded’, ‘The Matrix: Revolutions’ and 190

‘Avatar’. His artwork explores the creation of form through morphogenetic processes.

In 2014, Andy won the Lumen Prize Gold Award and he has work in collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez Research Cluster 9 Tutor Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez is a Spanish architect, with an MArch from the European University of Madrid and an MArch in Architectural Design from The Bartlett. Prior to moving to London, Alvaro worked with R&A and ALF Arquitectos in Madrid. He has wide experience in digital manufacturing, working for B-made, The Bartlett Manufacturing and Design Exchange at in Digital Manufacturing and contributing to projects including the Swiss pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2016 and Digital Grotesque for the Centre Pompidou. Alvaro is currently teaching in the digital fabrication lab at the AA as well as at The Bartlett.

Dr Abel Maciel Research Cluster 9 Theory Tutor Abel Maciel is an Architect and Senior Research Associate at the UCL. His research interests include computational design, game theory, artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed ledger technology (Blockchain). He is Director of Design Computation Ltd, a specialist consultancy based in London. Abel has extensive experience in architecture and research on a wide range of design typologies and scales, working with some of the world’s leading design practices. He is a Founding Director of the Construction Blockchain Consortium (CBC), Faculty Member of the UCL Centre of Blockchain Technologies and a member of the CogNav Special Interest Group at the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Igor Pantic Research Cluster 6 Tutor Igor Pantic is an architect and computational designer. Before working at The Bartlett, Igor worked for Zaha Hadid Architects in London; he has taught computational design courses and lectured in the UK and internationally. His current research is focused on the exploration of generative design methodologies and research into material and behavioural systems informed by algorithmic logic. Igor has a Master’s in Architecture and Urbanism from the AA’s Design Research Lab.

Luke Pearson Research Cluster 12 Tutor Luke Pearson is a lecturer in architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture and one half of the design and research practice You+Pea, alongside Sandra Youkhana. He is currently undertaking a PhD by Design in Architecture at The Bartlett, exploring video games and architecture, and was awarded the UCL Graduate Research Scholarship for this work.

Luke is a co-founder of the Drawing Futures conference and curator of the REALMS symposium, as well as teaching Unit 4 on the Architecture BSc programme. His writings have been published internationally including in Architectural Research Quarterly, CLOG, Interstices, Inflection Journal, OFFRAMP Journal, and Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice.

David Reeves Research Cluster 3 Tutor David is a senior researcher within the Computation and Design group at Zaha Hadid Architects where he leads the team’s Research and Development efforts in geometry processing for shape exploration and optimisation. His personal research is more broadly concerned with the application of numerical methods within architectural design modelling, how they can be used to better negotiate large sets of interdependent design criteria and, in turn, enable the discovery of novel design spaces.

Rasa Navasaityte Research Cluster 17 Tutor Rasa Navasaityte is a design tutor at The Bartlett School of Architecture. She is a Research Associate at the University of Innsbruck and is the co-founder of the Lab for Environmental Design Strategies. She has taught workshops, seminars and design studios at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and the University of East London. Her project contributes to an architectural framework of ecological form at the scale of the city and is acknowledged through several publications, awards and exhibitions.

Filippo Nassetti Research Cluster 16 Tutor Filippo Nassetti is a designer focused on projects that explore the co-evolution of the human body and technology. He researches organic form, computational methods and emerging fabrication techniques, exploring through design notions of human, natural and artificial, digital and material, and exposing new scenarios and aesthetics. In 2012 Filippo co-founded MHOX, a research practice promoting the design of speculative prostheses and wearable products.

Since 2015 he has been a member of the Computation and Design group at Zaha Hadid Architects. In 2016 he joined the Urban Morphogenesis Lab. 191

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Claudia Pasquero Urban Morphogenesis Lab Director, Research Cluster 16 Tutor Claudia Pasquero’s work operates at the intersection of biology, computation and design.

She is Director of the Urban Morphogenesis Lab, Co-Director of ecologic Studio, Professor of Landscape Architecture at Innsbruck University and a senior staff member at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. In 2017 she was Head Curator of the Tallinn Architectural Biennale and was named as one of the top ten world innovators in the WIRED Smart List.

Her work has been published and exhibited internationally. Most recently she completed the BioTechHut Pavilion for Expo Astana 2017, HORTUS Astana 2017, Urban Algae Folly Aarhus2017 and she is now working on a new commission for the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Javier Ruiz Research Cluster 7 Tutor Javier Ruiz is a design tutor in Research Cluster 7 and Unit 20 in Architecture MArch (ARB/RIBA Part 2) at The Bartlett, where he develops computational techniques and design strategies for experimentation in architecture. He previously worked at Grimshaw Architects, Foster + Partners, CRAB Studio and Eralonso Arquitectos. He has also collaborated with marcosandmarjan.

B-Pro Staff Biographies

Annarita Papeschi Research Cluster 14 Theory Tutor Annarita Papeschi is a practising architect and a researcher, with an MArch in Architecture and Urbanism from the AA (2007). After 9 years at Zaha Hadid Architects, she co-founded FLOW Architecture and joined as director in 2016. Her work qualifies through the development of iconic designs and their translation into built reality, with global experience in the construction of large-scale proposals. Her research actively engages with systemic design, with a focus on novel participatory processes through big data analytics. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Architectural Design at The Bartlett.

Aisling O’Carroll Research Cluster 11 Tutor Aisling O’Carroll is a licensed landscape architect, with degrees in architecture and landscape. Her work bridges practice, academia, and research, addressing the relationships between landscape, urbanism, and ecological processes. She has undertaken research and design work with internationally recognised firms and research groups including Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, P-REX lab (MIT), and OPSYS. Aisling has been an invited lecturer and critic at Harvard GSD, University of Toronto, University of Hong Kong, and RISD. She is currently completing her PhD in Architectural Design at The Bartlett, funded though the UCL Graduate Research Scholarship. Aisling is Co-Editor in Chief of The Site Magazine.

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Annarita Papeschi Research Cluster 14 Theory Tutor Annarita Papeschi is a practising architect (ARB, RIBA) and a researcher. She holds an MArch from the AA and she is currently a PhD candidate at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Before joining the architectural and urban design practice Flow Architecture as a director (2016), she was a Lead Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects. Her research examines the broad intersection of computational design and participatory processes, exploring the disruptive potential of data-informed visualisations and artefacts for engagement from a post-humanist and ecological perspective.

Maj Plemenitas Research Cluster 2 Tutor Maj Plemenitas is an innovator, researcher and academic. He is Co-Founder of Amphibious Lab and the Founding Director of Linkscale, an awardwinning research practice based in London.

His work focuses on cross-scale design and multi-scale strategies, systems and structures in architectural, urban and landscape contexts.

He has lectured internationally at leading global institutions including the American Institute for Architects (AIA) New York and Center for Architecture NYC, UVA and Harvard GSD as well as in numerous peer-reviewed conferences in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.

He has exhibited and published his work widely.

Martina Rosati Research Cluster 1 Tutor Martina Rosati is a London-based architect and designer investigating the potential of 192

computation and fabrication technologies to generate time-based and adaptive architecture tightly intertwined with its users. Martina studied in Italy and UK where she completed her MArch in Architecture and Urbanism (AADRL) at the AA. She has professional experience in UAE and UK, where she worked at Dewan Architects and Engineers (Dubai), at Balmond Studio and at Zaha Hadid Architects (London).

Vicente Soler Design Computation Lab Director, Research Cluster 4 Tutor Vicente Soler consults and lectures as a specialist in computational design and digital fabrication.

He has worked with several offices, participating in multiple internationally recognised projects.

At the European University in Madrid, he worked as a researcher in robotics applied to architecture and taught on several postgraduate architectural programmes. Now at The Bartlett, Vicente co-directs Design Computation Lab, coordinates the Architectural Design technical skills module and offers support for computation and robotics. He develops software for the programming and control of industrial robots that is used in multiple architecture schools and other institutions.

Martha Tsigkari Architectural Computation MSc/MRes Tutor Martha Tsigkari is a Partner in the Applied Research and Development group at Foster + Partners. She is a specialist in a wide range of areas including performance-driven design and optimisation, interfaces and interaction, designto-production, and fast feedback and integration.

Her work incorporates the development of simulation tools, the introduction of integrated processes and the creation of physical interfaces. She has provided solutions for hundreds of diverse projects such as the new airport for Mexico City. She is a member of RIBA and a juror at various schools, including the AA and UPenn. She has taught, lectured and published on the subject of computational design internationally.

Rae Whittow-Williams Research Cluster 11 Theory Tutor Rae Whittow-Williams is a qualified architect with over ten years of practice experience across the realms of architecture, urbanism, research, planning and regeneration, giving her first-hand knowledge of the challenges that face

B-Pro Staff Biographies

contemporary urban development. In 2014 she contributed to the AHRC funded Equalities of Wellbeing UCL/Aberdeen research project, and for the last two years has co-led a Design Think Tank for the London School of Architecture.

She is currently working for the Greater London Authority’s Regeneration and Economic Development team on the Good Growth by Design programme, developing research around commissioning quality in the built environment.

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Daniel Widrig Material Architecture Lab Director, Research Cluster 6 Tutor Daniel Widrig founded his studio in London in 2009. After graduating from the AA, he worked for several years with Zaha Hadid where he was involved in designing some of Hadid’s most iconic buildings and products. His studio now works across a broad range of fields including art, fashion design and architecture. He has received international critical acclaim and has been published and exhibited internationally. He is a recipient of the Swiss Arts Award, the Feidad Merit Award and the Rome Prize.

Sandra Youkhana Research Cluster 12 Tutor Sandra Youkhana is an architectural designer practising in London. She has worked as a research assistant at The Bartlett School of Architecture for a number of years and has taught on various programmes including Urban Design MArch and Architecture MArch. Sandra is one half of the design and research practice You+Pea with Luke Pearson. Their work challenges various media to create new methods of engagement, ranging from immersive drawings, public installations and participatory video games to interactive devices, architectural ‘toys’ and 1:1 experiments.

Emmanouil Zaroukas Research Cluster 16 Theory Tutor Emmanouil Zaroukas holds a diploma in Architecture from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is an architect, researcher and educator. He is completing his PhD at University of East London, where he explores the creative capacities of artificial neural networks and machine learning in architectural and urban design.

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Staff, Visitors & Consultants

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A Thomas Abbs Ana Abram Wesley Aelbrecht Visiting Prof Robert Aish Prof Laura Allen Kit Allsopp Dr Kinda Al-Sayed Sabina Andron Abigail Ashton Edwina Attlee B Julia Backhaus Edward Baggs Stefan Bassing Paul Bavister Richard Beckett Prof Peter Bishop Izzy Blackburn Isaïe Bloch William Bondin Prof Iain Borden Dr Roberto Bottazzi Visiting Prof Andy Bow Matthew Bowles Eva Branscome Visiting Prof Thea Brezank Pascal Bronner Alastair Browning Giulio Brugnaro Bim Burton Matthew Butcher Ivan Byrne C Joel Cady Visiting Prof Graham Cairns Daghan Cam Blanche Cameron 194

William Victor Camilleri Barbara CampbellLange Dr Ben Campkin Dr Brent Carnell Prof Mario Carpo Martyn Carter Dan Carter Eray Cayli Megha Chand Inglis Efrosini Charalambous Prof Nat Chard Laura Cherry Izaskun Chinchilla Mollie Claypool Prof Marjan Colletti Emeritus Prof Peter Cook Hannah Corlett Prof Marcos Cruz D Luca Dellatorre Dr Edward Denison Klaas De Rycke Dr Ashley Dhanani Visiting Prof Elizabeth Diller Paul Dobraszczyk Oliver Domeisen Marco Dorneles Elizabeth Dow Tom Dyckhoff E Gary Edwards Ruth Evison Vanessa Eyles F Visiting Prof Terry Farrell Ava Fatah Zachary Fluker

Emeritus Prof Adrian Forty Emeritus Prof Colin Fournier Visiting Prof John Fraser Prof Murray Fraser Daisy Froud G Emeritus Prof Stephen Gage Octavian Gheorghiu Stylianos Giamarelos Pedro Gil-Quintero Emer Girling Ruairi Glynn Alicia Gonzalez-Lafita Perez Jon Goodbun Kevin Green Emmy Green James Green Sienna Griffin-Shaw Dr Sam Griffiths Kostas Grigoriadis Visiting Prof Nicholas Grimshaw Peter Guillery H Michael Hadi Soomeen Hahm Dr Sean Hanna Dr Penelope Haralambidou Visiting Prof Itsuko Hasegawa Emeritus Prof Christine Hawley Prof Jonathan Hill Prof Bill Hillier Thomas Hillier William Hodgson

Tom Holberton Oliver Houchell Dr Anne Hultzsch Visiting Prof Maxwell Hutchinson Vincent Huyghe Johan Hybschmann I Jessica In J Carlos Jiménez Cenamor Manuel Jimenez García Steve Johnson Helen Jones K Dr Kayvan Karimi Dr Jan Kattein Jonathan Kendall Simon Kennedy Visiting Prof Anne Kershen Visiting Prof David Kirsh Maren Klasing Jakub Klaska Daniel Koehler Dirk Krolikowski Dragana Krsic L Jonathan Ladd Chee-Kit Lai Stephen Law Roberto Ledda Dr Guan Lee Stefan Lengen Lucy Leonard Dr Christopher Leung Sarah Lever

Staff, Visitors & Consultants

Visiting Prof Amanda Levete Ifigeneia Liangi Prof CJ Lim Enriqueta Llabres-Valls Andy Lomas Alvaro Lopez Tim Lucas Sian Lunt Samantha Lynch

N Filippo Nassetti Rasa Navasaityte O Aisling O’Carroll Bernie Ococ James O’Leary Luke Olsen Visiting Prof Raf Orlowski Ricardo de Ostos Alan Outten Jakub Owczarek

Q Davide Quagliola R Caroline Rabourdin Carolina Ramirez Figueroa Robert Randall Prof Peg Rawes Sophie Read David Reeves Luis Rego Dr Aileen Reid Prof Jane Rendell Gilles Retsin Charlotte Reynolds Aleksandrina Rizova Dr David Roberts Gavin Robotham Matthijs la Roi Martina Rosati Javier Ruiz Alice Russell

S Dr Kerstin Sailer Andrew Saint Dr Shahed Saleem Sheetal Saujani Carina Schneider Peter Scully Dr Tania Sengupta Sara Shafiei David Shanks Prof Bob Sheil Naz Siddique Amy Smith Paul Smoothy Prof Mark Smout Jasmin Sohi Vicente Soler Simon Stanier Brian Stater Manolis Stavrakakis Dimitrie Stefanescu Tijana Stevanovic Rachel Stevenson Emily Stone Sabine Storp Greg Storrar Michiko Sumi Yuri Suzuki T Huda Tayob Philip Temple Colin Thom Michael Tite Freddy Tuppen

Dr Nina Vollenbroker W Prof Susan Ware Gabriel Warshafsky Visiting Prof Bill Watts Patrick Weber Paul Weston Alice Whewell Andrew Whiting Rae Whittow-Williams Daniel Widrig Daniel Wilkinson Henrietta Williams Graeme Williamson Dr Robin Wilson Oliver Wilton Katy Wood Paul Worgan Y Umut Yamac Sandra Youkhana Michelle Young Z Paolo Zaide Fiona Zisch Stamatios Zografos

V Jeroen Van Ameijde Melis Van Den Berg Dr Tasos Varoudis Prof Laura Vaughan Emmanuel Vercruysse Viktoria Viktorija Jordi Vivaldi Piera 195

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M Sean Malikides Prof Yeoryia Manolopoulou Jonny Martin Emma-Kate Matthews Alex McCann Ronan McCoy Prof Níall McLaughlin Visiting Prof Jeremy Melvin Visiting Prof Josep Miàs Stoll Michael Bartlett Prof Frédéric Migayrou Jeffrey Miller Sarah Milne Ana Monrabal-Cook

P Yael Padan Sally Parekh Jacob Paskins Claudia Pasquero Jane Patterson Thomas Pearce Luke Pearson Prof Alan Penn Dr Barbara Penner Phoenix Perry Mads Peterson Frosso Pimenides Pedro Pitarch Alonso Maj Plemenitas Kim van Poeteren Andrew Porter Arthur Prior Dr Sophia Psarra

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

In the studio at 22 Gordon Street

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Our Programmes The Bartlett School of Architecture currently teaches undergraduate and graduate students across 25 programmes of study and one professional course.

Across the school’s portfolio of teaching, research and professional programmes, our rigorous, creative and innovative approach to architecture remains integral.

You will find below a list of our current programmes, their duration when taken full-time (typical for MPhil/PhDs) and the programme directors. Much more information, including details of forthcoming open days, is available on our website.

Postgraduate Architecture MArch (ARB/RIBA Part 2) Two-year programme, directed by Julia Backhaus (on sabbatical), Marjan Colletti & Barbara Campbell-Lange Architectural Computation MSc/MRes 12-month B-Pro programmes, directed by Manuel Jiménez Garcia Architectural Design MArch 12-month B-Pro programme, directed by Gilles Retsin Architectural History MA One-year programme, directed by Professor Peg Rawes Architecture & Digital Theory MRes One-year B-Pro programme, directed by Professor Mario Carpo & Professor Frédéric Migayrou Architecture & Historic Urban Environments MA One-year programme, directed by Dr Edward Denison

Advanced Architectural Research PG Cert Six-month programme, directed by Professor Stephen Gage Architectural Design MPhil/PhD Three to four-year programme, directed by Professor Jonathan Hill Architectural History & Theory MPhil/PhD Three to four-year programme, directed by Dr Ben Campkin Architectural Space & Computation MPhil/PhD Three to four-year programme, directed by Dr Sean Hanna Architecture & Digital Theory MPhil/PhD Three to four-year programme, directed by Professor Mario Carpo & Professor Frédéric Migayrou Professional Professional Practice & Management in Architecture PGDip (ARB/RIBA Part 3) Seven, 12, 18 or 24-month course, directed by Professor Susan Ware

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Undergraduate Architecture BSc (ARB/RIBA Part 1) Three-year programme, directed by Matthew Butcher & Mollie Claypool Architectural & Interdisciplinary Studies BSc Three or four-year programme, directed by Elizabeth Dow Engineering & Architectural Design MEng Four-year programme, directed by Luke Olsen

Bio-Integrated Design MSc/MArch Two-year B-Pro programmes, directed by Professor Marcos Cruz & Dr Brenda Parker (MSc only) Design for Manufacture MArch 15-month programme, directed by Professor Bob Sheil & Peter Scully Design for Performance & Interaction MArch 15-month programme, directed by Ruairi Glynn Landscape Architecture MA/MLA One (MA) and two-year (MLA) programmes, directed by Professor Laura Allen & Professor Mark Smout Situated Practice MA 15-month programme, directed by James O’Leary Space Syntax: Architecture & Cities MSc/MRes One-year programmes, directed by Dr Kayvan Karimi Urban Design MArch 12-month B-Pro programme, directed by Roberto Bottazzi

Public Lectures The Bartlett International Lecture Series Attracting guests from across the capital, our International Lecture Series has featured over 500 distinguished speakers since its inception in 1996. Lectures in this series are open to the public and free to attend. All of the lectures are recorded and made available online via our Vimeo channel.

We were delighted to welcome guest speaker Thomas Heatherwick to give the Donaldson Lecture in March 2018. The event, which celebrates architecture and education, took place at UCL at Here East.

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Other speakers this year included: — Sonja Bäumel — Philippe Block, ETH Zurich — Marie-Ange Brayer, Centre Pompidou — Vera Bühlmann, Vienna University of Technology — Matthew Butcher, The Bartlett — Bryan Cantley, Form:uLA, California State University — Sir Peter Cook, CRAB Studio/The Bartlett — Winka Dubbeldam, Archi-Tectonics — Fabio Gramazio, ETH Zurich, Gramazio Kohler Research — Herman Hertzberger, AHH — Inequalities: Ben Campkin, Caren Levy, Mariana Mazzucato, Peg Rawes, Jane Rendell & Saffron Woodcraft, UCL — Moon Hoon, Moonbalasso — Anouk Legendre, XTU Architects — CJ Lim, The Bartlett — Winy Maas, MVRDV — Peg Rawes, The Bartlett — Jasia Reichardt — Markus Schmidt, Biofaction — Jeremy Till, UAL — SueAnne Ware, University of Newcastle, Australia — Ken Yeang The Bartlett International Lecture Series is generously supported by Fletcher Priest Architects.

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Constructing Realities A new series at UCL at Here East, Constructing Realities welcomed a diverse range of speakers on themes of performance, interaction, design and manufacturing.

This year’s speakers were: — Robert Aish, The Bartlett — Phil Ayres, CITA — Christopher Bauder, WHITEvoid — Johannes Birringer, Brunel University — Victor Burgin — Cristiano Ceccato, Zaha Hadid Architects — Lisa Finlay, Heatherwick Studio — Dorita Hannah, Aalto University — Barbara Holub, transparadiso — Maria Knutsson-Hall, Populous — Ollie Palmer — P. Michael Pelken, University of Cambridge — Lucy Railton, Kammer Klang — Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts — Peter Sharpe, Kielder Art & Architecture — Phil Steadman, UCL — Mollie Wright Steenson, Carnegie Mellon — Stelarc — Dora Sweijd, LASSA — Cristian Vogel, NeverEngine Labs Constructing Realities is generously supported

by Populous.

Prospectives This newly-established B-Pro History and Theory lecture series offers a platform for presentation, discussion and theoretical reflection upon the links between digital thought, architecture, and urban design.

This year’s speakers were: — Roberto Bottazzi, The Bartlett — Vera Bühlmann, TU Vienna — Mario Carpo, The Bartlett — Ilaria Di Carlo — Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths — Francesca Hughes, UTS School of Architecture — Daniel Koehler, The Bartlett — Frédéric Migayrou, The Bartlett — Philippe Morel — Georg Vrachliotis

Bartlett Plexus The Plexus Project is an open-to-all initiative that brings together the creative talent of different disciplines to share techniques, solve problems and build networks.

Recent speakers have included: — Nick Beech, Queen Mary University of London — Elizabeth Darling, Oxford Brookes University, and Lynne Walker, University of London — Olivia Horsfall Turner, V&A — Kim Kullman, Open University — Anna Minton, University of East London

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

Recent speakers have included: — Pablo Gil, GilBartolomé Architects — Tyson Hosmer, Zaha Hadid Architects — Jakub Klaska, Zaha Hadid Architects/ The Bartlett — Oliver Krieg, ICD Stuttgart — Denis Lacej, Grimshaw Architects — Theo Lalis, LASSA — Deborah Lopez and Hadin Charbel, University of Tokyo — Roblox (Anna Uborevich-Borovskaya, Chenghan Yu, Hungda Chien, Yenfen Huang), The Bartlett — Rasa Navasaityte, Lab-Eds — Matthijs la Roi, The Bartlett — Vicente Soler, The Bartlett

Situating Architecture Situating Architecture is an architectural history lecture series, affiliated with our renowned Architectural History MA and designed for both current students and members of the public alike.

Bartlett Lectures

A range of smaller lecture series and events attracted a wide range of speakers, including:

Thomas Heatherwick gives the 2018 Donaldson Lecture 199

Events and Exhibitions The Bartlett plays host to a range of events throughout the year, ranging from PhD conferences to workshops and hackathons.

This year we hosted Becoming ‘We’, a forum celebrating feminist spatial practice, and Pushing Boarders, a conference exploring the social impact of skateboarding worldwide.

In addition, a vibrant programme of exhibitions runs throughout the year at 22 Gordon Street. These include displays of student, staff and alumni projects, as well as work by invited guests. Recent examples include ‘Streetlife: Works + Practice in Progress’, in which four invited practices presented real and speculative projects engaging communities and transforming neglected streets.

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018 Family day at The Bartlett Summer Show 2017 200

Our ‘Kiosk’ is a permanent micro-exhibition space in the front window of the school, exclusively displaying student work at street level.

Kiosk exhibitions this year have included: — Mapped by Douglas Miller, Architecture MArch Unit 11 — Unexpected Encounters by Bihter Almac, Architectural Design PhD — Future Archive: Investigating our Generation

by Architectural Research II, Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies BSc Year 2 — The Diggers’ Festival of Peace by Adrian Siu, Architecture MArch Unit 13

Alumni All Bartlett School of Architecture alumni are invited to join UCL’s Alumni Online Community to keep in touch with the school and receive benefits including special discounts, UCL’s Portico magazine and more.

Registered alumni have access to: — Thousands of e-journals available through UCL’s Library — A global network of old and new friends in the worldwide alumni community — Free mentoring and the opportunity to become a mentor yourself — Job boards for the exclusive alumni community ucl.ac.uk/alumni

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

The Bartlett’s diverse and vibrant alumni play a vital role in the life of the school, as staff, visiting lecturers, mentors, sponsors, donors and participants.

Every year we organise several alumni events, including the R&V dinner, founded by and for alumni as the ‘Rogues and Vagabonds’ dinner, over 60 years ago. The event offers great food, an interesting venue, thought-provoking speakers and a chance to catch up with friends.

This year’s dinner took place at 22 Gordon Street, with guest speakers – and Bartlett alumni – Roz Barr (architect), George Clarke (architect and broadcaster), Professor Mark Swenarton (historian and critic) and Graeme Williamson (architect). The dinner is chaired

by Paul Monaghan, Director at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

Other events for alumni include a lively Pecha Kucha social event on the theme ‘Not Just an Architect’, to be held in Spring 2019 at UCL at Here East.

Alumni at the 2017 R&V dinner 201

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Short Courses The Bartlett School of Architecture welcomes hundreds of students from around the world to participate in our short courses. We also run pop-up workshops locally and internationally, working closely with architectural institutions and practices.

The Bartlett Summer School Our Summer School is ideal for students looking to bridge the gap between school and university and bolster their understanding of architecture school. Taught through a series of tutorials and workshops over either two or four weeks, the Summer School culminates in an open sharing session.

Applications for 2019 will open in November 2018. A limited number of scholarships will be available.

Pre-Master’s Certificate in Architecture Designed for applicants interested in applying to a Master’s Programme in Architecture at The Bartlett, the Pre-MArch prepares students for further study, developing a range of key skills alongside their English Language skills.

Beginning in January each year, the programme provides 15 hours’ teaching contact time on average per week by the Centre for Languages & International Education and additional tuition at The Bartlett, to develop research skills and critical thinking, understanding of the issues related to architecture and a small design portfolio.

Applications for January 2019 are currently open.

Find out more Visit our website to find out more and to see this year’s pop-up workshops.

Contact bartlett.shortcourses@ucl.ac.uk

Bartlett Summer School 2017 203

The Bartlett School of Architecture 2018

The Bartlett Summer Studio Our Summer Studio is an academic and architectural adventure, enabling students to build their design skills and conceptual and critical thinking within a playful atmosphere of experimentation and fabrication. It is ideal for students already studying architecture or a related discipline and available as either a two- or four-week course.

Applications for 2019 will open in November 2018. A limited number of scholarships will be available.

Supporting the Bartlett International Lecture Series since 2007

www.fletcherpriest.com

Fletcher Priest’s design approach is informed by a strong interest in history, materials and fabrication. At Angel Court, we developed ‘double-frit’ glazing, a ceramic dot screen-printed onto the inside face of double-laminated glass panels. This contributed to significantly lower solar gains while appearing virtually transparent to occupiers taking in the incredible views across London.

We design the places where people love to be together

Sharing innovative ideas and exciting stories from unique multidisciplinary perspectives, we are delighted to sponsor the new Bartlett Constructing Realities Lecture Series.

ucl.ac.uk/architecture Find us on

Publisher The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL Editor Laura Cherry Graphic Design Patrick Morrissey, Unlimited weareunlimited.co.uk Executive Editors Laura Allen, Penelope Haralambidou, FrĂŠdĂŠric Migayrou Bartlett life photography included taken by Graham Whitby Boot, Ana Escobar, Kirsten Holst, James McCauley and Richard Stonehouse.

Copyright 2018 The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and the authors No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

We endeavour to ensure all information contained in this publication is accurate at the time of printing.

ISBN 978-1-9996285-1-2

For more information programmes at The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL, visit www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL 22 Gordon Street London WC1H 0QB +44 (0)20 3108 9646 architecture@ucl.ac.uk @BartlettArchUCL facebook.com/BartlettArchitectureUCL bartlettarchucl vimeo.com/bartlettarchucl

ucl.ac.uk/architecture

ISBN 978-1-9996285-1-2

9 781999 628512