R+D

Research

Our research and development team aims to tackle the industry’s most pressing challenges by exploring alternative ways of building and living. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, we treat the environmental and social challenges as opportunities for innovation and improvement.

At the centre of our research is the intersection between nature and technology, allowing us to find new design solutions through sustainability and digital innovation. We believe in designing the logistics of a building system that can adapt and evolve as needs arise.

To rethink the way we live, we must rethink the way we build

We are looking at new design models to end user relationship. Homes can be customised to fit client needs while standardising components that can be mass-produced. This creates an environment that can cater to varied types of users, whilst delivering at a cost that can be anticipated and managed to meet demand.

Solving the Housing Crisis

The housing sector faces two significant challenges: to address the affordable housing shortage, and secondly, the ambitious zero-carbon goals set by the government to combat climate change.

A conservative construction industry is proving slow to adapt to face these goals. A new design model is required to rethink the relationship between the home and its end user. We need to rethink what is standardised and what is customised. We need to treat design less as a formal creation of a static object and more as an agile product with distinct parts, able to reconfigure and adapt to accommodate changing needs. Therefore, a new Design process is required that can move from a static representation of a formal idea to a design of a system that can be organised and controlled using digital tools.

Sustainability

40% of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the built environment

Our commitment to finding innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions and drive sustainable behaviours has earned us the highly coveted title of Architectural Practice of the Year in 2012. This achievement prompted the creation of our Research and Development group, dedicated to exploring the key challenges we face in the industry.

Innovation in Offsite Construction

A recent study found that using off-site construction could reduce carbon emissions by as much as 45% compared with traditional building methods.

By approaching modularity through utilising off-site fabrication methods, we aim to use advanced digital design tools to create environments that harness the power of the virtual world, enabling new forms of collaboration. This process engages with a variety of stakeholders to discover a new connection between customisation and standardisation.

We use modular offsite construction combined with algorithmic tools to find new ways to maximise customisation of repeatable standardised parts.

From the power of computation, a simple base parts can be repeated and articulated in such a way that can create a richness in forms and possibilities.

Modular Components can be disassembled, reconfigured, and reused in a LEGO-like approach. This process reduces the carbon footprint for building modules where parts can potentially be reused.