Platform – Automated Living System (ALIS)

ALIS is a housing prototype created by Design Computation Lab in response to the Global housing crisis.

Inefficient housing, scarce and expensive land have been identified as core contributing factors to this crisis, and ALIS (an automated living system) aims to address these by proposing spaces that do not have fixed functions, contents or ownership.

Powered by an App, individuals can select the time and function (bedroom, office, café) of the spaces they need, 24/7. A system of robots change the configuration of the walls, utilities and personal items are stored in an automated storage system for when they are needed next.

ALIS is not to be interpreted as a final solution to the housing crisis, but as a tool to question assumed ‘truths’ about how we live – the home, ownership and social habits.

ALIS is the work of The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Design Computation Lab (DCL), which focuses on the development of automated architectural design and production technologies for the built environment. DCL’s work comments on a wide ranges of prescient issues from the global housing crisis, to the future of work and limitations of material resources, proposing that automation can bring about positive change for the future. 

DCL’s housing prototype ALIS will be installed in the Building Centre for February 2020 and used as a working space for debate and public engagement around the future of automation and housing. 

On February 7 2020, DCL will use ALIS as a platform and provocation to host a round table event and presentation of their recent book Robotic Building: Architecture in the Age of Automation (Detail Edition 2019).

DCL is run by Mollie Claypool, Manuel Jimenez Garcia, Gilles Retsin and Vicente Soler.

Supported by the Built Environment Trust.