House Block

House Block was a temporary housing prototype in East London, UK from April to May 2021. The project constituted the most recent in a series of experiments developing Automated Architecture (AUAR) Labs’ discrete framework for housing production, one which repositions the architect as curator of a system and enables participants to engage with active agency. Recognizing that there is a knowledge gap to be addressed for this reconfiguration of practices to take form, this project centred on making automation and its potential for local communities tangible. This sits within broader calls advocating for a more material alignment of inclusive design with makers and 21st Century making in practice (see, for example, Luck 2018). House Block was designed and built using AUAR’s discrete housing system consisting of a kit of parts, known as Block Type A. Each block was CNC milled from a single sheet of plywood, assembled by hand, and then post-tensioned on site. Constructed from 270 identical blocks, there are no predefined geometric types or hierarchy between parts. The discrete enables an open-ended, adaptive system where each block can be used as a column, floor slab, wall, or stair—allowing for disconnection, reconfiguration, and reassembly (Retsin 2019). The democratisation of design and production that defines the discrete creates points for alternative value systems to enter, for critical realignments in architectural production.