---
img: "/imgs/Community/News/rc9/009.png"
topic: "UCL Bartlett RC-9"
title: "Mixed Reality Assisted Construction"
description: "VAMX Academy"
author: "UCL Bartlett School of Architecture"
resume: "Research Cluster 9"
publish: "10/06/2023"
---
UCL Bartlett School of Architecture
UCL is a diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni. Our powerful collective of individuals and institutions work together to explore new possibilities.
Academic Excellence
30 Nobel laureates
11 academic faculties
51,000 students (in 2023)
16,000 staff (in 2023)
2nd in UK for research power (REF 2021)
430 undergraduate programmes
150+ nationalities represented by student body
720 postgraduate programmes
The Bartlett
The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment, has been ranked #1 in the world in the Architecture and Built Environment field in 2023, according to the QS World University Subject Rankings. We also remain #1 in the UK for Architecture and the Built Environment for the ninth year running. The Bartlett is the UK’s largest and most multidisciplinary hub for education and research in the built environment field, with a unique breadth and excellence recognised in our research. Through our research, education, and the diverse community of students and scholars that we bring together from around the world, we are uniquely positioned to tackle some of the most crucial issues facing society and our planet, including the climate crisis and global inequalities. Together, we continue to shape our field and lead the change that is needed to build a better world for everyone.
**Creative innovation** – the drive to produce inspirational and useful ideas, objects, practices, representations, systems and technologies.
**Diversity** – supporting an academic environment with passionate variety and multi disciplinary expertise.
**Autonomy** – the freedom to make decisions on one's future, while respecting those of others.
**Equity** – the principle of equality of access to all resources.
**Integrity** – the primacy of appropriate knowledge, rigour, evidence and propositions in all critical debates.
**Dignity** – the right for all individuals to be treated with respect and courtesy and to be valued for their skills and abilities.
**Our Radical Origins** – UCL was founded in 1826 with a bold and radical agenda, opening up higher education in England for the very first time to those of any race, class or region. That same radical ethos is carried through today.
**Academic Excellence** – where staff and students are committed to making a responsible impact on the world around them through insight and ingenuity.
**Innovative and Relevant Research** – that tackles some of the greatest challenges facing us today in global health, sustainable cities, intercultural interaction and human wellbeing.
**Partnerships** – with practically-oriented organisations (such as conservation groups, governments, NGOs, companies, consultancies, developers and architectural practices) in order to tackle real-life problems and conditions.
**Local Responsibility and Engagement** – we practice direct interaction with our immediate context of London, as well as with the specific situations and conditions of the many other places we operate all over the world.
Research Cluster 9
Throughout history, technology has had a crucial influence on the development of society. Different eras have been defined by technological advancements which hav had a profound impact on the built environment and construction. It has been proposed that, after the internet age, we are entering a new era - the 'Augmented Age' - while physicist Michio Kaku argues for a future in which architects rely heavily on augmented reality (AR). As we immerse ourselves in rapidly developing extended realities (XR), the barriers between humans and machines are increasingly blurred, with portable devices such as smartphones and tablets augmenting our perception of the environment.
Research Cluster 9 explores how XR technologies can change the way in which we design, build and interact with our cities. We explore a hybrid approach to making that is neither purely analogue nor automated through the application of alternative fabrication strategies, ultilising cutting-edge head-mounted devices to holographically assist designers and makers. We ask whether full automation is the ultimate goal or whether the role of humans in the construction chan needs to be reconsidered as automation is more widely adopted. Making in mixed reality (MR) reinvigorates traditional craftsmanship by augmenting hand and material skills with the precision and formal possibilities of digital modelling. MR-assisted processes can enhance human labour with data previously exclusive to machines while enabling seamless inclusion of intuitive decision-making and experience, both of which are often absent from automated construction processes.
Our research also includes XR technologies which allow for immersive experience and interaction with the metaverse and built environment. We propose new models which question the concepts of art ownership and intellectual property by developing digital platforms for multi-player design and using AI-assisted design. Under this speculative agenda, students interrogate how virtual platforms, understood as environments in which users can create, collaborate, explore, socialise and engage in economic activity, intertwine with the built environment and how architecture nad the urban environment become the canvas and enablers of virtual.
Research Project
**Mixity:** Xiuyu Hu, Chi (Jill) Lee, Yin-Chu Yu, Xu Zhang
**athAR:** Maher Moghrabi, Yancheng Qu, Armita Vajdi, Jiaming Ye
**SkillCast+:** Sarah Khaled Murtada Aladayleh, Misha Anthony Gilwny, Yi Li, Esra Oksuz
**LaminAR:** Xinlu Chen, Zeshun Liang, Yiguan Liu, Laizhen Wu
**VernaculAR:** Jing Feng, Yue Qin, Yifan Ran, Wenqiang Wei
