The Architectural Association (AA) Emergent Technologies and Design (EmTech) Programme has collaborated with Populous and its departments Populous Global Digital, Experience Studios and Encapture Studio to create a new pavilion in Bedford Square titled DensiFlora.

The EmTech Taught Postgraduate Programme at the AA has a long history in designing and creating structures and pavilions. This year’s pavilion, DensiFlora, explores how sustainable architecture can be realised using rattan canes, integrating computational design and robotic fabrication to address biomaterial construction. Jonathan Nelson, Global Head of Digital at Populous, said:
‘This collaboration between Populous and the AA exemplifies the successful convergence of academic research and practical application, showcasing how both can work together to develop innovative solutions to complex spatial and material challenges. It also highlights the potential of immersive experiences and digital twin technology to enhance user interaction within the digital realm.’

Through the correlations between generative design, material computation and prototyping, DensiFlora advances rattan – a renewable and durable biomaterial – for lightweight, bending-active, and stable enclosures. Through a full-scale prototype, it integrates rattan's mechanical properties with form-finding, simulation methods and structural analysis. Robotic fabrication within the project demonstrates how traditional processes can be adapted to work with computational design, opening new avenues for the use of biomaterials in large-scale structures and emerging technologies.

DensiFlora continues the tradition of building on Bedford Square as a collaboration between an academic programme at the AA and an architectural practice in order to test ideas at scale and imagine new possibilities.

DensiFlora is on view on the southwest corner of Bedford Square in front of the AA until Wednesday 11 December and a documentary by Emtech can be viewed here.