Voyage Home: Digital Architecture for Social Good

Voyage Home: Digital Architecture for Social Good is coming to Old Town Street in Plymouth city centre on Friday 25 September, an interactive installation led by Dr Alejandro Veliz Reyes. It's a hands-on look at how the University of Plymouth is rethinking how we build homes, and it's free to visit.

The research at the heart of it is about making housing affordable, sustainable, and built for the people who actually live in it. The team combines digital design and innovative construction techniques with direct community involvement, working from the principle that the people who live in a place should help shape it. That's not just a theory they've kept in the lab: their work has taken them from Plymouth's own Whitleigh community to rural housing projects in Chile and to displaced communities in Türkiye.

On the day, the installation brings that research right into the city centre. You can get hands-on with the materials and models they're using, and the researchers themselves will be there to talk you through it. It's less of a 'look but don't touch' exhibition and more of a chance to see the actual building blocks of what they're working on.

Voyage Home is part of the university's European Researchers' Night programme, Voyage of Discovery: Exploring Research Together, which takes world-class research out of the lab and into communities across Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall through free public events, school activities and online content. All ages are welcome, and there's no booking required. It runs from 09:00 to 17:00 at Old Town Street, Plymouth City Centre, PL1 2AA, and entry is free.