Course Description and Overview
The MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation aims to give students a comprehensive understanding of the practical skills required to create generative, emergent and responsive forms, through exposure to real programming environments. In order to achieve this goal, the course team comprises both architects and experts in artificial intelligence. Programming is taught through the Processing language, which was created to teach computation to designers with no prior experience of computing. Time is dedicated to studio sessions with experienced tutors who have a track record of research into architecture and computation.
Alongside the practical classes, the MSc AAC offers a unique theoretical framework. We believe that the true power of the computational methodology is only realised through an understanding of its interaction with the social, environmental and spatial context in which it operates. To this end, the course team are embedded within UCL Bartlett's 5*-rated SPACE research group, which specialises in (and originated) the field of space syntax. Two lecture series present both the process side of the generation of environments, as well as the social implications of the product. Lectures from the course team are balanced by guest lecturers from the forefront of practice and research. The central theme of the lectures is one of how to create embedded, embodied and adaptive design. That is, design that couples the relationship of spatial configuration and society with the computational ability to analyse and respond to the environment.
There are several workshops during the year, including the Physical Computing workshop, which teaches students how to incorporate interactive devices into their work, and the Parametric Modelling and Fabrication workshop, which instructs students in parametric design using Bentley’s Generative Components.
During the third term and summer period, students undertake a personal research project. Our aim is that a graduate of the course should not only be able to design, but also be able to back up their design thinking with a rigourous scientific justification of its principles, both to clients and prospective employers.
After completing the course, most graduates go on to join leading architectural and engineering practices, either directly with design teams or with specialist modelling groups. In the past two years, MSc AAC graduates have joined Foster and Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, KPF Associates, Aedas, Arup and Mott MacDonald. Alumni have also joined (or founded) cutting edge emerging digital design practices such as United Visual Artists or Moving Brands, or moved into academic research.
Detailed course information can be found on the main course webpage:
http://www.aac.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/
An overview can be found below.
Course Aims
The course aims to take generative, emergent and responsive systems and place them into the grasp of adventurous architects and designers, so they are fully able to use these techniques, both with the knowledge of the practicalities required and the understanding of the social implications of their creation.
Course Delivery
The course can be taken full-time over 12 months, or part-time over 24 or more months. The taught element of the course is delivered on two days per week over the first two terms. Full-time students attend both days, while part-time students, if taking the course over 24 months, attend one day a week over the first two terms; part-time attendance may be reduced further by if the course is taken over a longer period.
Modules
The computational analysis of space, structure and other aspects of architecture facilitates an understanding of the complexities of the built environment. A number of methods are introduced in this module, including the simulation of natural vision, machine learning algorithms and intelligent systems, with emphasis on their application in design related domains from agent simulation to structural engineering. This content is presented in the context of its implications in the creative process, emergent behaviour, and relevance to design. It forms an important theoretical basis for the creation of architecture via the generative methods presented within the Computational Synthesis module
Credits: 15
Term 1
Assessment: 2 hour exam
This module introduces a range of algorithmic techniques used for generating architecture, from parametric modelling to generative methods based on procedural rules. These are presented first as independent techniques, but also in the context of optimisation, which requires the framing of explicit design objectives and computational methods for evaluation of designs. Each session describes the theory and implementation of a particular algorithm or computational method. It exposes students to the potential for computation to be used to enhance architectural process, and gives an appreciation of the cutting edge techniques currently being developed, so that they form a basis for onwards research by the student.
Credits: 15
Term 2
Assessment: 3000 word term paper
This module introduces the concepts and processes of embedding and embodiment. It uses these to conduct creative and detailed explorations relating to understanding the space of potential interactions: person to person, person to digital, person to physical, digital to physical, and digital to digital. It also considers insights into the effects of digital technologies in design on the nature of design collaboration, and it takes the position that body awareness is key to the education of designers in the digital age. The
module adopts an open form of education and encourages students to work
across boundaries of various types of creative endeavour such as dance, film and music.
Credits: 30
Terms 1 and 2
Assessment: Learning log (collation of presentation and research materials)
This module encourages students to develop a serious approach to academic skills in reading, writing and referencing by engaging them in critical and reflective thinking about the main concepts and themes of the course, as these are presented in a range of ‘classic’ texts. The pedagogical emphasis is on the particular challenges faced by design-oriented students in conducting those aspects of applied architectural research which require linguistic, rather than visual, expression.
Credits: 15
Term 1
Assessment: 3000 word essay
This module gives students a practical introduction to the construction of parametric and generative structures. The focus is on learning algorithmic implementation in detail, with advanced programming techniques. At the same time, students are encouraged to think about how form and structure may adapt to its context, and in particular, how architecture may evolve through its occupation. Students are asked to prepare a morphogenetic structure using digital printing or milling techniques, and to document its basis in code.
Credits: 15
Term 2
Assessment: Digitally fabricated piece and documentation
This module gives students an introduction to using computation for creative production in a studio context. It concentrates on architecture as it relates to the creation of space about our body through movement and dance. As such, there is a focus on the performative aspect of architecture. A series of structured lessons take beginners through programming techniques that are relevant to architectural computing as a whole as well as to the implementation of a digital theatre piece, including the creation of film and video interaction.
Credits: 15
Term 1
Assessment: Production of a short video piece
This module gives students the opportunity to construct an interactive design piece. Students are introduced to a range of sensors and actuators and given studio instruction in the programming of adaptive control systems. The module acts as a chance to make a physical implementation that engages the relationship of architecture to the environment – both physical and social – as informed by the theories of cybernetics and kinetic architecture. The focus is on how each piece may communicate between objects, people and other automata. As a range of structural components employed, it may include anything from an electronically controlled motor to a projected visual and aural artwork.
Credits: 15
Term: 2
Assessment: Physical piece with video documentation
Students following the MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation are required to submit a 10,000 word report. The topic of the report, which is supervised by a member of the Bartlett staff, is selected by the student and agreed with the Course Director and can be taken from a wide range of subjects related to the main themes of the course, typically involving the development of an interactive installation or a system to improve the design process. The student may select the topic to assist career development or because of its inherent interest.
A collection of selected student research reports is available online.
Credits: 60
Term: 3
Assessment: written assignment
Course Staff
course director)
Alasdair Turner is lecturer in Architectural Computing at the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. He researches models of people movement and social interaction, spatial analysis, generative design and neural network models of human behaviour. He leads the Computing for Emergent Architecture modules, as well as the Introduction to Adaptive Architecture and Computation. Email Alasdair Turner
Ava Fatah is a research fellow at the VR Centre for the Built Environment, a registered architect, and a College Teacher for the MSc AAC course. Her current research is into the use of location-based computing in an urban context, with previous research into interface design for augment reality collaborative virtual environments and its impact on the design process. Ava leads the Digital Space and Society module. Email Ava Fatah
Sean Hanna is a RCUK Academic Fellow: Space and Adaptive Architectures at the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. His current research is in optimisation and machine learning for structural design and digital manufacturing, and developing computational methods for dealing with complex systems in architecture. Sean leads the Generative Space, Form and Behaviour module. Email Sean Hanna
Alan Penn is Director for the Virtual Reality Centre for the Built Environment and Professor of Architectural and Urban Computing. His current research interests are first at the interface between spatial analysis and virtual reality, and second in the evolution and design of large and complex buildings such as hospitals and laboratories, and he has published extensively in both areas. Alan gives various lectures on the course, and acts a mentor to it, as well as being supervisor to students during their dissertation projects. Email Alan Penn
Technological change in the topics covered by the course is rapid, and several modules supplement the core material with lectures given by invited specialists from industry and academia at the forefront of their respective fields of practice. These vary depending on the topics to be covered, but past lectures have included:
Robert Aish (Bentley Systems Inc.)
Mark Burry (Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT)
Usman Haque (Haque Design + Research)
Charles Walker (Arup Advanced Geometry Unit)
Hugh Whitehead (Foster and Partners Specialist Modelling Group)
Graduate Clerk
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
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tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 1738
fax: +44 (0) 20 7679 2837
e-mail: bartlett.pgclerk@ucl.ac.uk
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