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Student Showcase Archive

Thomas Glover

MA work

MA work

  • Open Source [Fork 1]

    Open Source [Fork 1], Thomas Glover 2015
    Digital

  • Open Source [Fork 1]

    Open Source [Fork 1], Thomas Glover 2015
    Digital

  • Open Source [Fork 3]

    Open Source [Fork 3], Thomas Glover 2015
    Digital

  • Open Source Constitution

    Open Source Constitution, Thomas Glover 2015
    Digital

  • Woven Façade Robot

    Woven Façade Robot, Thomas Glover 2015
    Digital

  • Open Source Site Model

    Open Source Site Model, Thomas Glover 2015
    Digital
    100 cm x 60 cm

Voxels of Voxel [Open Source design for a 3D Urban Cluster]

Great cities are in a perpetual state of incompleteness. New private cities are appearing across the globe, which are designed as closed systems, unable to adapt to the inhabitants needs. As an alternative I am proposing an 'Open Source design for a 3D Urban Cluster'.

What if the city could be designed not by an architect’s master plan but by the choices of the future inhabitants of that city? Using ideas borrowed from open source software such as Linux and Android operating systems, together with specific elements of Metabolist architecture, the project will let the future inhabitants make spatial and economic choices about the form and evolution of their city.

Prospective buyers will initially choose the 3D space they wish to occupy using an on-line computer game platform similar to Minecraft. The spaces which can and cannot be bought are defined by a set of rules that can be adapted or ‘forked’ by the inhabitants to suit their needs.

As more like-minded people buy into a specific cluster the characteristics of that cluster are likely to be accentuated. Over time the city will form with distinct neighbourhoods that will remain in a perpetual state of flux. Although the amplitude of changes will decrease as the neighbourhood grows from tens of inhabitants to hundreds to thousands, the city will always remain open and adaptable.

Info

Info

  • MA Degree

    School

    School of Architecture

    Programme

    MA Architecture, 2015

    Specialism

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  • Thomas is a designer with an interest in the relationship between computation and made form, architecture and robotics.

    For the past three years he has worked as a designer and maker at Heatherwick Studio in London. He has recently been chosen by the British Design Council as one of the 70 young designers to watch in the UK. He is also a recipient of the RIBA Wren scholarship for one of the 5 most promising architecture students in Britain.

  • Degrees

  • BA Architecture, University of Nottingham, 2012
  • Experience

  • Designer, Heatherwick Studio, London, 2012–15; Model maker, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, London, 2012
  • Publications

  • Adaptive Bio-systems, Fast Company, 2015