Plans for a new £4m Manchester fashion research hub using collaborative and soft robotics and agile tooling that will support local and sustainable production have been given the green light.
The Robotics Living Lab (RoLL) at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Manchester Fashion Institute (MFI), designed by Bennetts Associates, has been approved by Manchester City Council.
Fashion researchers, designers and manufacturers will be able to collaborate with RoLL – funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council – to make use of robotic technologies with a focus on creating high-value, low-volume fashion production in the UK.
The low-carbon, timber and straw pavilion will be constructed at MFI with work finishing in the summer. The design, a single-storey timber framed building, will provide an adaptable and functional workspace and exhibition and events space for the Robotics Living Lab to promote and showcase its work and research. The ‘Work in Progress’ pavilion forms the second phase of the Robotics Living Lab project.
Susan Postlethwaite, Professor of Fashion Technologies at MFI and Director of RoLL, said: “I am delighted to be working with Bennetts Associates to develop a low-carbon design for the work in progress space. This beautiful structure will help support us in showcasing and drawing attention to the important work of the lab.
“The lab will support new research in collaboration with small businesses to bring back fashion manufacturing to the UK, using new technologies to develop innovative, new, carbon neutral and sustainable fashion technologies.”
