A team of postgraduate students from the Bartlett School of Architecture’s Design Computation Lab in London is thinking futuristically when it comes to building spaces. They developed a modular home office to promote its Automated Architecture (AUAR) project, which involves using robotic fabrication.
The project, dubbed ALIS (automated living system), features the construction of prefabricated plywood building blocks that lock together to create indoor spaces, such as home offices, children’s playrooms, or a co-working space.
Initially, the project was inspired to address a wide range of architectural issues, including the growing demand for home offices, flexible working spaces, access to affordable housing, and limitations of material resources. “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,” the team explained.
ALIS is an online app where users can customize or create spaces depending on their needs, such as an office, art studio, bedroom, or a pop-up café. The concept of ALIS is based on a single, identical building block, which is manufactured using CNC technology and two industrial robots to assemble the blocks.
The robots arrange the blocks into the elements needed to construct the walls and fittings of the space pre-designed. “ALIS uses robotically prefabricated plywood building blocks, with reversible connections that allow for quick reconfiguration and adaptation of the system over time,” the team added.
The ALIS building blocks are lightweight and can be easily installed without needing building experience or special tools. The blocks incorporate every element of the interior space, including flooring, storage, meeting tables, walls, shelving, and a corner sofa bench. The modular blocks can be used as supports during the installation process and can later be reconfigured or reassembled for alternative uses later on.
Automated Architecture’s goal is to contribute to new construction models for automated housing and the involvement of local construction, adaptation, and community interaction. A more recent, real-world example of that same approach is Boxabl, whose foldable $50,000 Casita went public on Nasdaq in 2026.
