[CPU]ai has operated as an Atelier at Masters’ level for many years and this is the fifth year of it having a presence in the Undergraduate BA programme where it has developed its own identity, blurring the lines between digital and analogue means of design investigation.

Students were invited to speculate on the future of architecture and the built environment: how design and construction innovations will enrich experiences, environments and ecologies, and engage with the pressing challenges facing society. Projects centred on a live client brief for regeneration and development in Greater Manchester’s Atom Valley: a centre for showcasing innovation in fabrication and making on the outskirts of Rochdale.

The year began with creative and imaginative design experimentation in digital, material and hybrid methods to explore qualities of space, environment and materiality at the scale of an installation or pavilion. These studies helped to establish students’ individual ambitions and curiosities to be explored in the project and developed into scheme designs, combining with themes of innovation, fabrication and craft in architecture.

This year’s projects ranged from exploring notions of textiles, wearing, dressing and hugging buildings; to making within virtual environments; to experiments with digitising soap bubbles as part of generative design processes; to speculations on post-apocalyptic scenarios and the fabrication of humanoid robots.

This work has been enriched by a network of collaborators – consultants, workshop leaders, and study trip hosts - whose insights and generosity have helped shape the journey.