Bartlett wins Leverhulme Trust Research Grant together with Cardiff University

Working as part of a research consortium, The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Professor Robert Aish with Cardiff University’s Dr Wassim Jabi and Dr Simon Lannon, have been awarded a £300,000 Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant for their proposal titled, ‘Enhancing the representation of architectural space in 3D modelling environments’.

The research aims to significantly influence architectural computing and architectural practice and to ultimately improve the experience of people who use buildings. It builds on previous research into a radical way to represent the spatial organisation of buildings using a technique called non-manifold topology (NMT) pioneered by Robert Aish.

The new modelling approach will be supported by an expanded set of tools that allow architects to create models that are consistent, flexible, and extensible while maintaining design creativity and desired spatial complexity. The team will develop a conceptual framework and schema for the hierarchical and cellular spatial representation of buildings through NMT and a set of algorithms and tools that test the potential of this approach.

The research team will be led by Dr Jabi as Principal Investigator in Cardiff and Prof Aish at The Bartlett and will include researchers at both institutions.

Prof Bob Sheil, Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture, comments: 'The significance of this research is that it addresses the crucial issue of how architects conceptualise buildings as the “enclosure of space” at the initial design stage. This research will challenge the current Building Information Modelling (BIM) orthodoxy where the building is represented as an assembly of building components.'

More information:

For more information on this project, please contact Prof Robert Aish or Dr Wassim Jabi.