The brickwork for a new university building in Milan will be arranged and assembled with the help of robots.

The University of Milan’s new science campus, designed by Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA), will showcase images or symbols in a potentially reconfigurable 3D talking facade.

CRA founding partner Carlo Ratti said: “Today massive open online courses, learning by making, continuous education and so on demand a fundamental rethinking of the architecture of the university – fostering more interactions both inside the community and outside it.

“This challenge is what inspired us in developing the design for the new campus for one of the world’s greatest universities.”

The project is being developed by Lendlease and its financing tender round will open in Autumn 2018.

The robot-built facade is the latest in a line of innovations from CRA, including a reconfigurable pavement and an intelligent robot capable of writing and drawing on vertical surfaces.