Data-driven and impactful solutions. Through the presentations of the industry partner’s challenges for the built environment, which are aligned with the master’s vertical and horizontal master’s themes, students have the opportunity to engage with real-world issues that require innovative solutions. Guided by weekly guest experts from both academia and industry, students explore and define a research project that tackles the challenges of the built environment. The developed project focuses on a data-driven solution with the potential for practical application and further development throughout the academic year.
The research project is impactful, grounded in data, and realistic for development within the year. Students are encouraged to consider the broader social, environmental, and technological implications of their research, ensuring its relevance in both current and future contexts.
Throughout the term, students leverage the skills and methodologies taught in their other courses, allowing them to critically assess the relevance, potential, and feasibility of their chosen projects. These skills will also aid in the development of interactive and compelling representations of their research outcomes. Students will utilise data visualisation tools, interfaces, and prototypes to effectively communicate their findings and proposed solutions to a broader audience, including stakeholders from the industry and academia.
By the end of the course, students have a well-rounded understanding of how to integrate research, data, and technology to craft solutions that are both innovative and practically applicable in the built environment.
Regenerative Design
This approach integrates ecological principles to restore ecosystems and promote sustainability. It focuses on circular design, resource efficiency, and fostering biodiversity. AI plays a key role by analysing complex ecological data, modelling adaptive systems, and optimising sustainable strategies.
Co-Design Process
Co-design involves collaborative input from multiple stakeholders. With AI-driven tools and digital platforms, the process becomes more efficient and inclusive. AI can generate design alternatives, predict outcomes, and streamline real-time collaboration and decision-making.
Carbon Neutrality
Achieving carbon neutrality requires reducing emissions and using renewable energy. AI helps manage energy use, identify low-carbon materials, and optimise buildings’ environmental responsiveness through predictive analytics and data-driven insights.
Urban Tech
Urban Tech leverages AI tools for urban analytics, real-time monitoring, and predictive modelling to address urban challenges. It focuses on using AI to analyse large datasets, simulate scenarios, and predict urban dynamics, enhancing urban development, infrastructure, and resource management.
Key Words: mobility, urban, infrastructure, urban analytics
Smart Construction
Smart Construction integrates advanced technologies and AI-driven automation to optimize the construction industry. From Design for Disassembly to swarm robotics, AI enables more efficient, data-driven construction processes.
Key Words: digital twins, digital manufacturing, material performance
Carbon Neutrality
AI helps analyse and predict interactions within natural ecosystems, contributing to biodiversity and decarbonization efforts. From satellite imagery to ecological modelling, AI tools support nature-based solutions and carbon-neutral strategies.
Key Words: natural evolutionary mechanisms, resources, bio-inspired innovation
At course completion the student will:
Our project tackles the challenges of sustainability, inclusiveness, and aesthetics in the built environment through a platform inspired by the European Bauhaus initiative (NEB). With an annual funding pool of €120 million, this initiative motivates us, as designers, to create environmentally responsible and socially inclusive designs. Our platform bridges the gap between complex NEB guidelines … Read more
Abstract: Natural disasters, especially earthquakes, often leave roads blocked, buildings collapsed, and maps outdated, making navigation and response efforts highly challenging, That’s where we operate. Our project SeisNAV is an AI-powered platform that combines satellite imagery and computer vision to detect collapsed structures and road blockages, providing real-time mapping and navigation tools for disaster response … Read more
Abstract In response to the increasing global population of visually impaired individuals, projected to reach 18.5% by 2050, our project focuses on enhancing the accessibility of architectural spaces, particularly in primary healthcare centers. We have developed the Building Analysis Tool (BAT), an solution designed to assist architects in creating environments that cater to the needs … Read more
Abstract The project explores innovative ways to address Barcelona’s sustainability challenges, such as carbon emissions, air pollution, and energy inefficiency. By leveraging AI, IoT sensors, and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), the project aims to optimize municipal budgets for interventions that transform underutilized urban spaces into productive assets. The study highlights solutions like urban farming, greenery, and … Read more
