1. Breaking the CAD Shell

The MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation aims to give students a
comprehensive understanding of the practical skills required to create
generative, emergent and responsive forms, through exposure to real
programming environments. In order to achieve this goal, the course team
comprises both architects and experts in artificial intelligence.
Programming is taught through the Processing language, which was created
to teach computation to designers with no prior experience of computing.
Time is dedicated to studio sessions with experienced tutors who have a
track record of research into architecture and computation.
Alongside the practical classes, the MSc AAC offers a unique theoretical
framework. We believe that the true power of the computational
methodology is only realised through an understanding of its interaction
with the social, environmental and spatial context in which it operates.
Two lecture series present both the process side of the generation of
environments, as well as the social implications of the product.
Lectures from the course team are balanced by guest lecturers from the
forefront of practice and research. The central theme of the lectures is
one of how to create embedded, embodied and adaptive design. That is,
design that couples the relationship of spatial configuration and
society to the computational ability to analyse and respond to the
environment.