To understand this story, you'll have to put conventional thinking aside at least for a few minutes.

An exhibition called Glitch - Practicing Improper Production in Architecture will open at Watt Space Gallery in Newcastle on Thursday night.

The man behind the exhibition is architect Nicholas Flatman.

When we think of a glitch, most of us think of a computer malfunctioning.

"Glitchy piece of crap," might be our reaction.

Nicholas takes a different approach. He embraces glitches. He uses them to harness "alternative design capability as an extension to human thinking".

This kind of thinking enables design to "leap into areas of unpredictable and unimaginable potential".

Nicholas, a practicing architect who designs houses and apartments in Newcastle, said "improper production" was a way to distinguish and challenge his practice.

Conventional architectural practices and processes were "increasingly complicit" with regulations and "software-driven compliance".

"I aim to break away from the conventional architectural product that we see in Newcastle today," he said.

"The first step for this change was to rethink the way I approach my design process."

Using alternative design techniques could lead to "new ways of experiencing and occupying architecture" and a "more engaging, vibrant and exciting design landscape for Newcastle".

An example of glitch architecture is using a digital or software error to create something physical and permanent, like a building or facade, that has artistic and aesthetic qualities. The glitch, then, might create something more beautiful, interesting and unique than originally intended.

It can also be used to inform the way a building functions. For example, how rooms connect or the way a living space is arranged and organised.

The exhibition is the culmination of Nicholas's project-based research on developing glitches as an architectural method.

"I have documented a series of projects across a range of scales and complexities, from residential to urban, communal and hypothetical," he said.

His research allowed him to "develop, test and reflect on ideas about glitches that can be applied to my architectural practice".

"From my experience, I find that the quality of the design outcome is often constrained by limitations of the designer and their design tools.

"Historical awareness and institutional expertise can get in the way of creativity."

The glitch concept liberates his designs from "the creative constraints of conventional thinking and software".

The connotation of a glitch, he points out, is often perceived as negative.

"It can be described as a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or fault of equipment. On the contrary, malfunction and failure indicate an active production arising from the accidental potential.

"For example, the invention of the ship implies its wreckage, so too does digital software imply glitches."

An alternative understanding of a malfunction expands his thinking.

"I am able to draw upon my commercial architectural experience and actively work with glitches as part of the design process in the economic and material reality of architecture," he said.

Glitches, then, can be used to advance "design, technology and society as a whole".

"Rather than being discarded for their failures, we should work with their qualities and understand how they might contribute new ways of thinking about architectural design," he said.

Some of his clients were engaging with this design process and "contributing their own narrative and interpretation that is particular to their individual lifestyle".

The glitch concept enabled clients to select "highly specific and tailored architectural solutions".

"While the design process works with improper techniques, it does not mean that the design produced is by any means faulty.

"On the contrary, I work meticulously with post-glitch strategies to develop these alternative, often abstract outcomes into realised, built and fully functioning pieces of architecture."

Speaking of creative ways to use "flawed" things, Eunice from Belmont drew our attention to Harris Farm Markets' "Imperfect Picks".

"It's a clever marketing strategy," she said.

Having asked the company about an "imperfect mango", the company told her that "Imperfect Picks is our seasonal range of fruit and vegetables that might not look perfect from the outside, but are as perfect as ever on the inside".

"Imperfect Picks helps reduce the astonishing statistic that 25 per cent of farmers' crops currently never leave the farm gate simply because they are a bit ugly, and do not meet the visual specifications of some consumers and supermarkets.

"This means that every time you buy an imperfect pick, you will be helping us take more of the farmer's crops, helping reduce food wastage and, most importantly, saving up to 50 per cent."