Micro-factories build eco-friendly, economical homes

Spotted: The Executive Director of UN-Habitat recently said that global housing policy has been a “collective failure over the past decades,” leaving around 2.8 billion people facing housing issues, from homelessness to substandard or unaffordable homes.

Now, two University College London (UCL) Bartlett School of Architecture lecturers, Mollie Claypool and Gilles Retsin, have created Automated Architecture (AUAR) as one way to help tackle the crisis. Using robotic manufacturing and algorithmic design, AUAR licenses its micro-factories to homebuilders for faster, more economical housing development. These micro-factories make a timber core and shell for a house, while the software streamlines the rest of the build process.