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Master in Robotics & Advanced Construction

The Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction (MRAC) seeks to train a new generation of interdisciplinary professionals who are capable of facing our growing need for a more sustainable and optimised construction ecosystem. The Master is focused on the emerging design and market opportunities arising from novel robotic and advanced manufacturing systems.

Through a mixture of seminars, workshops, and studio projects, the master programme challenges the traditional processes in the Construction Sector. It investigates how advances in robotics and digital fabrication tools change the way we build and develop processes and design tools for such new production methods.


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WOVEN EARTH: FROM CRAFT TO INTELLIGENT ARCHITECTURE


MRAC-01 2025-2026 by
MRAC-01 2025-2026

A Hybrid Robotic-Human System for Adaptive Woven-Earthen Construction Abstract Woven Earth reinterprets traditional willow weaving and earth construction as a digitally informed architectural system. Drawing from vernacular techniques such as wattle and daub, the project develops a hybrid construction method combining woven willow, variable-thickness cavities, and robotic fabrication. Infill strategies layer light earth and straw … Read more

Material Logic over Machine Efficiency: A Conversation with Manja van de Worp


MRAC-01 2025-2026 by
MRAC-01 2025-2026
Manja van de worp

Manja van de Worp Director, YIP Structural Engineering | Faculty: MAA, MaCAD, MRAC Manja van de Worp is a prominent structural engineer and the Director of YIP Structural Engineering London. With over 15 years of professional experience in the global construction industry, her work specializes in the synergy between structural geometry, advanced fabrication, and emergent … Read more

OMNIMORPH


MRAC-02 2025-2026 by
MRAC-02 2025-2026

Adaptive Framework for Hybrid Slicing Strategies in Large-Scale Robotic Fabrication of AI-Derived Architectural Systems Throughout history, imagined worlds have existed through literature, cinema, and digital environments, continuously expanding architecture beyond the built. Today, AI allows these speculative realities to be generated with unprecedented complexity, while robotic fabrication enables their materialization. Through an adaptive framework using … Read more

Workshop 3.1 – Robot – Human Collaboration in Metal Fabrication


MRAC-01 2025-2026 by
MRAC-01 2025-2026

Faculty: Nacho Monereo & Prottay Roy ChowdhuryGuest Artist: Maria Mallo The project focused on creating a dynamic feedback loop between digital design, robotic positioning, and human craftsmanship. Instead of treating the robot as a fully autonomous machine, the workflow emphasized continuous interaction and mutual dependency between human and machine during fabrication. The installation was fabricated … Read more

Workshop 3.1_Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in metal fabrication


MRAC-01 2025-2026 by
MRAC-01 2025-2026

Introduction This workshop explores new modes of architectural production through active collaboration between humans and robots, shifting away from traditional models of automation toward hybrid systems of shared decision-making. Rather than understanding the robot as a fully autonomous tool, it is framed as an agent that cooperates with the human in real time, creating a … Read more

Terraweave


MRAC-01 2024-2025 by
MRAC-01 2024-2025

Crafting performative structures through robotic earth injection in dynamic fiber scaffolds Terraweave is an architectural research project that explores how robotic additive manufacturing can enhance the performance of natural building materials. Conducted as part of the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction at IAAC, the project investigates the integration of willow scaffolds and earth injection … Read more

STICKS & STONES


MRAC-01 2024-2025 by
MRAC-01 2024-2025

Hybrid Timber and Stone Constrcuction System Utilisng 6-axis Robotic Fabriction Our research begins with a critique of how we build today. Technological advancements have enabled rapid, standardized, and seemingly affordable construction. But these efficiencies hide deeper costs. In reality, we’re paying through the loss of cultural specificity, environmental integrity, and material identity. What emerges is … Read more

DRDA- Dynamic Robotic Design Activities


MRAC-02 2024-2025 by
MRAC-02 2024-2025

ABSTRACT Autonomous parametric furniture assembly using modular blocks and ROS-driven industrial robots promises to revolutionize on-demand manufacturing. In this work, we introduce DRDA (Dynamic Robotic Design Activities), a unified framework that seamlessly links customer-driven design to autonomous multi-robot execution. A user-defined geometry and style, which our custom block-selection and toolpath-generation engine converts into collision-free pick-and-place … Read more

Timber Syntax: A Computational Pipeline for Assembling Non-Homogeneous Timber


MRAC-02 2024-2025 by
MRAC-02 2024-2025

In the pursuit of a sustainable built environment, Timber Syntax demonstrates how reclaimed, non-homogeneous timber can be transformed into high-quality facade systems through a computational and robotic pipeline. Developed at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), this project bridges waste reuse, advanced fabrication, and circular design to propose a new paradigm for timber … Read more

AIbotix: Optimizing Construction Workflows Through Spatial Cognition and an AI Agent in Robotics


MRAC-02 2024-2025 by
MRAC-02 2024-2025

“Spatial Cognition in Robotics: Optimizing Construction Workflow with AI”Shu Xiao – MRAC02 Thesis, IAAC 2024–2025 Despite advances in manufacturing automation, the construction industry continues to rely heavily on manual labor due to its unpredictable environment, safety concerns, and fragmented workflows. This project explores how vision-guided robotics and real-time AI agents can close that gap by … Read more

Applied Theory III _ Un_Log Factory


MRAC-01 2024-2025 by
MRAC-01 2024-2025

INTRODUCTION In today’s construction industry, a large portion of timber is discarded due to its non-standard shape, curvature, or internal defects. Un_Log Factory challenges this paradigm by proposing a digitally augmented fabrication system that embraces the natural irregularity of timber. Instead of seeing bent or cracked logs as waste, our process redefines them as raw … Read more

Machine Learning Strategies for Toolpath Optimization in Fabrication


MRAC-01 2024-2025 by
MRAC-01 2024-2025

In the ongoing pursuit of efficient toolpath generation, we set out to build a modular, logic-driven system capable of planning subtractive manufacturing strategies. The framework integrated zonal segmentation, directional movement, and dynamic state awareness; its goal was adaptability and long-term scalability. While we achieved full system functionality, this initial iteration exposed the distance between a … Read more

Workshop 3.1_KAPLA-Nest


MRAC-01 2024-2025 by
MRAC-01 2024-2025

| INTRODUCTION | Learning Structures: From Parametric Rules to Machine-Made Forms. In this project, we explored the interplay between parametric design, machine learning, and robotic fabrication. Starting from Kapla block assemblies controlled by simple deformation rules, we trained a GAN to reinterpret and generate new structural variations. The process concluded with robotic pick-and-place construction, closing … Read more

Timber Narratives


MRAC-01 2023-2024 by
MRAC-01 2023-2024

Building on the principles of disassembly explored last semester, this phase of the Timber Narratives project delves deeper into advanced data-driven design strategies. We now capture and utilize timber colour values through enhanced scanning technologies, integrating this data into our designs. Additionally, we’ve implemented machine learning with logistic regression for precise categorization of timber for … Read more