The Design Research Laboratory (DRL) is a 16-month, post-professional design research programme that leads to a Master of Architecture and Urbanism (MArch) degree. Our Lab has been at the forefront of design experimentation for more than two decades, pioneering advanced methods in design, computation and manufacturing.
The programme is based on an evolving framework of three-year research cycles that examine architecture and urbanism from the city scale to the nanoscale. The DRL is led by innovators in architecture, design and engineering, and implements an interdisciplinary approach that extends beyond architecture to foster collaborations with companies such as Ferrari, Festo, AKT II, Reider and Odico Robotics.
The Lab remains a space of co-operation and curiosity, and develops the next generation of architects who will actively engage with and influence the field. DRL graduates have gone on to establish offices, lead advanced research groups and teach at institutions worldwide.
Four terms of study are divided into two phases. Phase 1, a three-term academic year beginning each autumn, introduces design techniques and topics through a combination of team-based studio work, workshops and seminar courses.
In Phase 2, which begins the following autumn, teams develop their Phase 1 work into a comprehensive design thesis project. At the end of January, these projects are presented to a panel of distinguished visiting critics. In the past, these have included Alisa Andrasek, Caroline Bos, Mark Cousins, Hernán Díaz Alonso, Molly Wright Steenson, John Frazer, Zaha Hadid, Michael Hansmeyer, Ariane Koek, Thomas Heatherwick, Rem Koolhaas, Marta Malé-Alemany, Wolf Prix, Ali Rahim, David Ruy, Brett Steele, Ben Van Berkel and Winka Dubbeldam, among many others.
Phase 1
Design Research Agenda: Social Ecologies
Our current agenda explores expanded relationships within and beyond architecture by considering the future of living, work and culture. The aim of the research is to diversify the field within which architecture can operate, by using behaviour as a conceptual tool to synthesise the digital world with the material world. We use advanced computational development to create architectural systems that are adaptive, generative and behavioural, challenging current design orthodoxies through novel tools for printing, making and computing.
DRL explores architecture that is mobile, transformative, kinetic and robotic, expanding the remit of the discipline and pushing the limits of design within larger cultural and technological realms.
Design Workshops: Simulating the Real (Term 1)
Four design workshop modules highlight how computational and material prototyping can be used as both an analytical methodology and a primary mode of design production and representation. Each five-week module focuses on a specific set of methods and an intended design output, introducing students to a range of concepts and techniques that can be further developed in the year-long Phase 1 and Phase 2 studio projects.
Core Seminars: Design as Research (Term 1)
This seminar explores design as a form of research, addressing its implications within technological, economic and cultural contexts. Students engage with computational approaches to design and study interdisciplinary digital work – across art, music, media and science – through weekly readings, presentations and project analyses.
Behaviour: Examining the Proto-Systemic (Term 2)
This seminar engages with experimental, computational and material practices from a behavioural perspective. Students examine pioneering work in cybernetics and systemic thinking from the 1950s onwards, analysing case studies to inform their own studio experimentation.
Constructed Histories: Technocentric History of Design (Term 2)
This seminar traces concise architectural histories shaped by geometric abstraction, additive manufacturing, and materials such as brick and stone. Students explore how these materials relate to the mathematical principles of graphic statics and stereotomy, and examine their influence on the built environment.
Software Platforms (Terms 1–2)
These workshops introduce software tools such as Maya, Rhino, Arduino, Unity, Houdini and scripting platforms. Through this, students acquire foundational and advanced skills in parametric modelling, interactive presentation, programming and dynamic modelling techniques.
Synthesis: Writing, Research and Submission (Terms 1–2)
These weekly sessions focus on writing and research methods. Topics include thesis abstracts, academic writing, citation practices, and the preparation of essays, papers and project documentation.
Phase 2
Design Research Agenda: Social Ecologies
Angius Studio
Themes: Mobile Architecture / Soft Infrastructure / Amphibious Environments / Self-Sufficiency
This studio investigates hybrid territories between the human body and minimal spatial constructs, revisiting Yona Friedman’s vision for a mobile architecture in relation to the post-war concept of Existenzminimum. Studio projects will consider new environmental paradigms shaped by resource scarcity and climate change, and will explore how amphibious and adaptive environments and ‘soft infrastructure’ can be leveraged to enable self-sufficient habitation.
Bhooshan Studio
Themes: Participatory Agency / Emergent Built Environment / Robotic Manufacturing / Games and GovTech
This studio explores participatory design processes enabled by digital fabrication and gamification. The work connects online community structures with physical environments using robotic and industrialised systems, and considers how stakeholder input into design can be gathered through cyber-physical platforms.
Schumacher Studio
Theme: Cyber-Urban Incubator
This studio explores the design of a virtual-native city by focusing on the metaverse as a persistent digital environment for social and economic activity. Projects focus on spatial legibility, orientation and interaction within dense, information-rich 3D environments.
Spyropoulos Studio
Theme: Elemental.ai
This studio challenges the fixed assumptions of architectural design by engaging with the environmental phenomena that sustain life. Its investigations range from quantum relationships to atmospheric water harvesting, seeking new conceptual terrain within ecological systems.
Prototyping Workshop: Adaptive Systems and Structures
This three-week workshop, held at the midpoint of Phase 2, interrogates the spatial, structural, material and environmental systems within each team’s thesis project. The workshop places emphasis on modelling techniques and feedback systems that support the development of large-scale proposals.