Atelier CPU[ai]

Our MArch 1 students are continuing to investigate #AdaptiveReuse to reimagine their #ManMet University Campus as more socially connected and responsive environments to support collective learning. @tehtarik_satu ’s project (WIP), titled “The Learning Playground” explores how movement and play can shape learning environments. Through a series of iterative spatial tests, the proposal develops a learning space typology that concentrates circulation, visibility, and social encounter. Rather than treating circulation as purely functional, flows becomes part of the learning experience itself. Developed for a new International College, the project rethinks conventional academic spaces by organising programmes around considerations of intensity, visual connectivity, and informal interaction, rather than fixed corridors and isolated classrooms. #CPUAtelier #FuturePractice #StudioAsLaboratory

Our MArch 2 [CPU]ai students are developing bespoke #ComputationalTools to explore sustainable #FutureCities. Responding to Manchester’s digital ambitions, @punblocks project investigates how cities can maintain and improve human connection through digital disruption and ‘smartification’. Situated in Trafford Park, #PixelCity reimagines current fragmented urban conditions through an integrated of a new spatial strategy and #Adaptive typology to enhance social, culture, and technological innovation, questioning what truly makes a city ‘smart’. Using the concept of the pixel as a modular #DFMA and human-scale urban unit, the project proposes a flexible design system capable of adapting to diverse resident needs while enabling grassroots change over time. As part of [CPU]ai’s CodeYourOwnTools methodological approach, Ioi developed bespoke computational tool to explore and test urban configurations through sociability metrics, enabling interaction and connectivity across multiple scales. The future of ‘smart’ cities needs to address sustainable cities and communities SDG11 CPUAtelier CodeYourOwnTools GenerativeDesign MixedUse SmartCity

Our MArch 2 students are finalising their #FutureCities projects by developing bespoke #ComputationalDesign tools. Jingkun Cao’s project explores how urban functions can be redistributed and balanced through the integration of technology industry and logistics, hybrid multi-functional spaces, and residential co-community clusters, within a future shaped by connected autonomous vehicles and drone-based systems. Through iterative computational processes using a topology modelling approach, design parameters are continuously adjusted and evaluated using #FieldsTheory, assessing spatial performance in relation to #Connectivity, contextual #Integration, and functional Diversity. CPUAtelier ComplexityScience GenerativeDesign StudioAsLaboratory UncertainFutures CodeYourOwnTools

Our MArch2 students are developing their own tools (#CodeYourOwnTools) to explore design spaces shaped by extrapolated #FutureScenarios. @pdn_archfolio project examines digital disruption, exploring how emerging technologies and the sharing economy can support sociability as technology becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life. The methodology tests how spaces can be shared and programmed around pedestrian-focused streets with high urban vitality. A network of green spaces forms a nested #SocialSpace infrastructure, supporting interaction, wellbeing, and connectivity across the site. Responding to Trafford Council’s ambition for high-density mixed-use development for the site #TraffordWharf, the project explores new urban and architectural typologies, creating a dense yet socially connected environment. A current work-in-progress video demonstrates how the theoretical framework translates into a socially sustainable urban form. More to come! Keep an eye out for the exhibition in early June. CPUatelier ComputationalDesign UrbanDesign FuturePractice Architecture DesignResearch

BA3 students are encouraged to use analogue processes and digital tools to prototype, test, and spatialise the logics driving their CPU projects, framing models as instruments for experimentation, iteration, and system exploration. @calin.architecture project “Mechanics of Democracy” investigates how governmental typologies can shift from static monuments into adaptive infrastructures of flow. Through a 1:500 physical model, the proposal operates as a speculative instrument, reframing governance as a spatial and temporal system rather than a fixed object. The laser-cut lattice acts as both structure and data-field, encoding movement, porosity, and occupation across its length. Anchored in the context of Epping Bridge, the project negotiates between control and openness, positioning infrastructure as an emergent #ComplexAdaptiveSystem shaped by use and interaction. Developed through iterative feedback between analogue fabrication and digital modelling, the geometry evolves as a responsive choreography of forces. The project aligns with CPU’s theoretical framework integrating self organisation, complexity and dynamics. #CPUAtelier, #ProjectAsResearch, #SystemsThinking

BA3 students participated in a workshop exploring the production of ‘Hero image’ drawings as a way of communicating the narrative and systems thinking of their CPU projects. @huseynbayov_archi project “More Room Less You” explores speculative radical urbanism through ideas of #Metabolism, repetition, and assembly. In response to Manchester’s housing history, from the Hulme Crescents to Victorian row housing, the drawing proposes a dense urban condition built from standardised, repeatable living units. The proposal draws on the Metabolist framework, designed to house and support standardised pods that can be packed, repeated and replaced over time. Screws, capsules and fragments operate as both construction elements and spatial devices, positioning housing as an open-ended adaptive system, to be assembled and reconfigured. #CPUAtelier #ProjectAsResearch #CodeYourOwnToos

Asking CPU students: “What’s one skill you’ve learnt in CPU?” From #ComputationalDesign to systems thinking, iteration, and communicating ideas through new digital tools, each response reveals a different way of approaching architecture. CPU is not just about learning tools, but learning how to think, test, and design through complexity. #CPUatelier #ArchitectsWhoCode #FuturePractice #DesignThinking @themsarch Students in the video: Ioi, @pdn_archfolio @aysha_archxlens @tinaabaki @saraassb_

It was a pleasure to welcome @officialheatherwickstudio back to the Manchester School of Architecture @themsarch as special guests for a day teaching with @cpu_msa atelier. It was a pleasure to teach alongside Ricardo and Luis from Heatherwick. Thanks to @mahmud_tantoush for the support and to our amazing students for presenting their exciting proposals

Within their final year thesis investigations, MArch 2 students are developing bespoke #ComputationalTools to explore sustainable #FutureCities. @archilexia project reimagines large-scale underused industrial land as a new #MixedUse urban landscape, prioritising living, movement, and collective space. Focusing on the area surrounding Old Trafford and the Trafford Centre, the work proposes a restructuring of fragmented warehouse fabrics through #SpatialAnalysis and typological studies, redistributing residential density, green infrastructure, and public amenities. It explores how large mono-functional plots can transition into layered environments where public Space, ecological systems, and residential life coexist. The proposal outlines a model for post-industrial territories that prioritises #Walkability, green continuity, and social interaction across multiple scales.

Within their final year thesis , MArch 2 students are developing bespoke #ComputationalTools to test spatial strategies for #FutureCities. Burhan Touheed Khan’s project (WIP) explores how #PublicSpace and #UrbanCirculation can be integrated in cities beyond two-dimensional street planes located in Trafford Wharf. His work develops a computational workflow to generate networks of elevated and shared public and amenity spaces as part of new building typologies. Rather than functioning purely as circulation bridge infrastructure, these social connectors distribute functions across the city considering complex accessibility needs. The methodology developed evaluates spatial relationships such as #function, proximity between different spaces, user needs, alignment of public floors, and structural span constraints. By testing these rules across multiple iterations, the workflow test different connection distributions, while maintaining feasible spans, equitable and accessible spaces.

Within their final year thesis projects, MArch 2 students are developing #ComputationalTools to test and iterate spatial strategies for #FutureCities. @aysha_archxlens project investigates how the 15 Minute City model can structure a #PandemicResilient urban framework. Using a #GeneticAlgorithm methodology for generative design, the project explores how #SelfSustainingNeighbourhoods can be configured so that essential amenities remain within walking distance while still allowing the capacity for temporary isolation during periods of disruption. Her WIP tool translates site analysis, 15-minute city principles, and learnings from analysing Paris & Barcelona urban forms into a set of spatial relationhsips that test iterations of how amenities cluster. By running multiple iterations, the system tests different distributions of amenities and evaluates them against criteria such as proximity, accessibility, and sustainability performance.

MArch 2 students spent Friday’s studio exploring the possibilities of #UnrealEngine for both their design projects and future professional practice. Working in groups, students are developing formats for their final interactive project presentations, including #VR / #AR experiences, short cinematic #films, and interactive #app interfaces. Each workshop explored new ways design outcomes can be experienced, navigated, and communicated. Many thanks to @PayamMalakouti , @futureprocesses team, and @mike.oreilly for delivering intensive Unreal Engine workshops, offering state-of-the-art perspectives and valuable insights into innovative ways of interactively presenting ComputationalDesign outcomes as we look ahead to the MSADegreeShow.