We design, build and experiment with Responsive Environments, Robotics and Kinetic Structures, Multi-Sensory Interfaces, Wearable Computing and Prosthetics, the Internet of Things, Performance and Choreography. Alongside our staff’s research projects, the Lab teaches a 12-month Masters programme giving students an opportunity to learn about the potential of new sensing, computation, networked and responsive technologies to imagine, build and test new spaces of interaction. Student projects are widely published in design and technology publications. Recent examples include:
2015 William Victor Camilleri & Danilo Sampaio Designboom Vice FAD Engadget
2015 Syuko Kato & Vincent Huygh Gizmodo We Make Money Not Art
2014 Lin Zhang and Ran Xie: CNET, PSFK
2014 Bijing Zhang & Francois Mangion:We Make Money Not Art, FastCompany
2014 Felix Faire: Creative Applications, Gizmodo
2013 William Bondin: Architizer, Mashable, Wired
2013 Chryssa Varna: Creator Project, Suckerpunch
2013 Ling Tan: Dezeen, Protein
2012 Ollie Palmer: BBC, New Scientist, Dazed
Project reEarth from the Interactive Architecture Lab. Principal Researchers William Victor Camilleri & Danilo Sampaio. Supervised by Ruairi Glynn, Dr Chris Leung & William Bondin
Many students’ projects go on to be exhibited in festivals and gallery exhibitions, recent examples include Kinetica Art fair, Royal Academy of Arts ‘Sensing Spaces‘, FutureEverything, Alpha-ville, Moogfest, and Hyperlink at Tate Modern.
Together with Lab staff, students annually publish work in international peer-reviewed conferences including ACADIA, RobArch, SimAUD, aCAADe and journals including Architectural Design, Volume, Kyberneties and Cybernetics & Systems.
The course attracts students from around the world, and from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. Students do not need to have an architectural background to study on the course. Applications should be directed to the MArch Architectural Design (AD) programme which the Lab is situated within. If you have any questions or would like any further details contact us below and visit our Lab page at the Bartlett
Project “Ant Ballet” from the Interactive Architecture Lab: Ollie Palmer supervised by Ruairi Glynn & Prof Stephen Gage
The Bartlett School of Architecture provides an exciting critical environment within which to question the social, environmental and spatial impact of emerging interactive technologies. The course welcomes people from all backgrounds to participate: in recent years it has attracted students not only from architecture and urban design but also product, fashion and graphic design, dance, mathematics, computing, environmental engineering, robotics and digital media. We like to describe the environment of the Lab as ‘anti-disciplinary’, encouraging freedom for the students and staff alike, to develop their own unique methods of working, their own unique agendas, and ultimately to create a new generation of creative leaders who can design, code, make and think imaginatively about the future of the built environment.
Project “Trespass” from the Interactive Architecture Lab: Artistic Director, Shobana Jeyasingh, Robotics Aksa Khera, Dan Feng & Dongming Chao Supervised by Ruairi Glynn, Chryssa Varna, Dr Chris Leung & William Bondin
Where our graduates go after the programme, is set by the agenda they develop within their time at the Lab. Annually graduates go onto work for well known global architecture firms such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid and Thomas Heatherwick, and we also see many go on to work for renowned interaction design firms, such as Troika, Jason Bruges Studio, Superflux and Umbrellium who work with innovative technology companies like Google, Intel, Samsung, and Nike. For those interested in further academic opportunities beyond graduation, students regularly win funded doctoral study awards and have taken teaching positions at leading schools of architecture and design. Outside the Lab, regular socials bring alumni together with current students to share expertise, develop future projects and build a thriving community.
Project Furl: Soft Pneumatic Pavilion by the Interactive Architecture Lab: Principal Researchers Becky Zhang & Francois Mangion, Supervisors Ruairi Glynn, Dr Chris Leung & William Bondin © Stonehouse Photographic
To design, code, make and think imaginatively about the future of the built environment, students are instructed in a fundamental set of skills, some common to architectural design education, such as 3D modelling, simulation and digital fabrication, others coming from further afield, including coding, electronics, robotics, lighting and environmental engineering, material science, cognitive psychology, and performance arts.
Project “Contact” by the Interactive Architecture Lab: Principal Researcher Felix Faire supervised by Ruairi Glynn
Project “Resonate” by the Interactive Architecture Lab for the Royal Academy of Arts. Principle Researcher Felix Faire, supervised by Ruairi Glynn