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Autopoesis

Project details

Programme
Cluster RC3
Year 1
Team Name Autopoesis

Autopoiesis: Autonomous Spatial Assemblies of Matter and Machine reimagines architecture as a living, adaptive system rather than a fixed object. Addressing the construction industry’s role in global extraction and waste, the project proposes a paradigm rooted in circularity, robotics, and AI.


Instead of treating matter as disposable, modular blocks of recycled stone, dust, and plastics enable ongoing cycles of assembly, disassembly, and reintegration—making material an active agent of sustainability. A catalogue of interlocking voxel-based geometries forms a tectonic grammar, where structures cohere through mutual dependency rather than external fasteners, combining and mutating into emergent forms.


Robotic systems carve, print, and reconfigure these assemblies with precision, while simulations and machine learning let architecture adapt in real time to spatial and environmental conditions.


Autopoiesis envisions buildings not as static monuments to consumption, but as evolving organisms—self-renewing through the interplay of matter, machine, and environment.

Students

Introduction

Introduction

About Autopoiesis
Autopoiesis argues for a regenerative architecture where matter and machine co-create adaptable, sustainable environments, rejecting waste and permanence in favour of cycles of transformation

Adaptive Tectonics

Adaptive Tectonics

Form Finding
Adaptive tectonics establishes a new architectural language where modular, interlocking geometries carved out of stone prioritise resilience and variability over static permanence.

Kit of Parts

The packing algorithm spatially organises discrete architectural components within a predefined volume, negotiating constraints such as connectivity, proximity, and material articulation

Packing Algorithm

The packing algorithm spatially organises discrete architectural components within a predefined volume, negotiating constraints such as connectivity, proximity, and material articulation

Matrix of mutations

Grammar of Parts

Voxel-based components operate as a grammar of parts, combining and mutating into emergent structural formations that evolve with context.

Emergent Spatial Assemblies

Material & Fabrication

Material & Fabrication

Closing the Loop - Autopoiesis reclaims demolition debris to transform waste into productive matter, challenging the destructive extract–build–dump cycle of construction.

Through CNC carving, 3D printing, and hybrid fabrication, material lifecycles are closed, embedding sustainability directly into architectural production.

Hybrid Fabrication

Through CNC carving, 3D printing, and hybrid fabrication, material lifecycles are closed, embedding sustainability directly into architectural production

Recycled stone, glass, and plastics are repurposed into modular blocks, each designed with specific structural, environmental, or performative roles.

Recycled Matter

Recycled stone, glass, and plastics are repurposed into modular blocks, each designed with specific structural, environmental, or performative roles.

Assembly Prototype

CNC Carved Parts

Mechatronics

Mechatronics

Mechatronics integrates robotics as active agents of construction, enabling autonomous processes of assembly, disassembly, and reconfiguration.

Spring-loaded cam mechanisms and specialised end-effectors allow robots to grip, interlock, and transport modular parts securely across different configurations.

Climbing Robots

Spring-loaded cam mechanisms and specialised end-effectors allow robots to grip, interlock, and transport modular parts securely across different configurations.

Prototyping Robotics

When modules are assembled, both their built-in joints and the new connections formed between them become navigable routes that robots use for pathfinding and reconfiguration.

Interlocking Pathways

When modules are assembled, both their built-in joints and the new connections formed between them become navigable routes that robots use for pathfinding and reconfiguration.

Obstacle avoidance and mutual pathfinding is the basis of distributed robotics resulting in multiple robots collaborating seamlessly.

Path Finding

Obstacle avoidance and mutual pathfinding is the basis of distributed robotics resulting in multiple robots collaborating seamlessly.

Through reinforcement learning, robots improve performance via reward and penalty functions, to better collaborate on given tasks.

Machine Learning

Through reinforcement learning, robots improve performance via reward and penalty functions, to better collaborate on given tasks.

Architecture emerges as a living organism—open-ended, regenerative, and perpetually transformed by its interaction with matter and environment.

Autopoiesis

Architecture emerges as a living organism—open-ended, regenerative, and perpetually transformed by its interaction with matter and environment.

Interlocking modules generate fluid interior environments, where walls, partitions, and vaults can be continuously rearranged to accommodate shifting uses.

Adaptive Interiors

Interlocking modules generate fluid interior environments, where walls, partitions, and vaults can be continuously rearranged to accommodate shifting uses.

Adaptive Interiors

From vaulted ceilings to multi-storey frameworks, modular recombination enables diverse spatial typologies that evolve organically through repetition and variation.

Emergent Architectures

From vaulted ceilings to multi-storey frameworks, modular recombination enables diverse spatial typologies that evolve organically through repetition and variation.

Emergent Architectures

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Autumn Show 2025
23 September – 5 October
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