A computational tool for designing zero-carbon urban blocks in Manchester, built in Grasshopper, Python and Rhino, with two applications running on top of it. Developed as a thesis project; not maintained since.

The thesis asked whether carbon neutrality can be reached by building energy generation into the fabric of a place rather than fixing it on afterwards. That meant hybrid typologies — established building types crossed with energy-generating prosthetics — and a way to weigh liveability, cost and carbon against each other, which no amount of drawing does reliably.

The tool runs a multi-factor optimisation across those three and is aimed at the people who decide what actually gets built: councils, developers and architects. Applied to Manchester's Eastern Gateway, it generates block proposals that can be compared rather than argued over.

Two applications sit on top, connected by an API. One, in Unity, is for those controllers — build, compare and iterate proposals. The other, in Swift, is for the people who would live there: a hub for the prosthetic capabilities on their own block. Atmosphere was tested in Unreal Engine, with carbon figures overlaid on the visualisations.