Michael O'Reilly

Michael O’Reilly is a Tutor in the [CPU]ai atelier at the Manchester School of Architecture, teaching in the MArch design studio. He is a registered architect and Senior Architect at ZHA in London, where he works primarily in the Tech cluster. In addition to delivering projects, he leads digital training initiatives across the practice and carries out applied research into emerging technologies. His teaching connects the atelier’s research-led, computation-enabled approach to design with the realities of delivering complex projects in practice. At ZHA since 2020, he has delivered projects across nine countries, alongside leading industry-backed applied R&D projects.

He studied in the atelier during his own MArch at MSA and returned as a tutor in 2024. His MArch dissertation examined how advanced BIM can enable digital twins, smart cities and ‘mirror worlds’, and his design thesis explored how non-planar systems could be the basis for cities in hyper-dense, isolated settlements, designing an asteroid-mining space station as a proof-of-concept. 

In 2026, he founded Forecast Factory, a hackathon series developed with [CPU]ai, which brings together students, practitioners, academics and the latest technology to explore experimental computational and digital design.

Teaching

Michael teaches in the [CPU]ai atelier alongside Dr Mahmud Tantoush and Professor Ulysses Sengupta, supporting MArch students as they develop computational and data-driven design strategies. Having been through the atelier as a student, and now working in practice, he brings key industry connections into the atelier, and a perspective on how computation, automation, data, and AI hold up across the latest developments in architecture practice.

Press and media appearances and contributions

• London Revit User Group, headline speaker: “Building Digital Adaptability for an Age of Technological Uncertainty”
  Partners: LRUG, SDE, Buro Happold, Kinship
  4 November 2026
• Forecast Factory 00, founder and organiser: “Computational and Architectural Design Hackathon”
  Partners: [CPU]ai, ZHA, MKS DTECH
  16 October 2026
• Architecture after Hours, London, speaker, 
  Partners: Skala Social, Gendo AI, Bentley Systems
  23 September 2026
• Manchester Society of Architects, panel speaker: “AI and the Built Environment”
  28 May 2026

Career highlights

Founder, Forecast Factory

Tutor, Manchester School of Architecture, [CPU]ai atelier

Senior Architect, ZHA