EmTech x Populous

The Architectural Association (AA) Emergent Technologies and Design (EmTech) Programme has collaborated with multi-disciplinary design practice, Populous to create a new pavilion titled DensiFlora, which will be open to the public on the southwest corner of Bedford Square.

DensiFlora explores sustainable architecture using rattan canes, integrating computational design and robotic fabrication to address biomaterial construction. By linking generative design, material computation, and prototyping, it 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. Employing robotic fabrication demonstrates adapting traditional processes to computational design, opening new avenues for biomaterials in large-scale structures and emerging technologies.