Opt Oog Column / Blast Studio. Image Courtesy of Blast Studio
In architectural design, our interactions with non-human organisms have predominantly involved creating barriers to exclude them from the human realm. What if we were to adopt a different approach? Interspecies design is a movement that puts non-human organisms—fungi, insects, and various animals—on an equal footing with humans. This design philosophy provides frameworks that foster non-hierarchical relationships with other species. By doing so, it cultivates empathy for other life forms and shifts our perspective on the world around us. It aims not only for a net-zero approach but also seeks collaboration with non-human organisms to develop environments beneficial to all. Below, explore some emerging material technologies designed to benefit both humans and other life forms.
The ArchDaily projects library is managed by our curators who constantly seek to populate our stream with the most interesting global works, showcasing evolving focuses and criteria. While we usually share our reader’s top 100 favorites, this year, we also decided to initiate our editor’s picks on the ArchDaily Instagram account, where our curators highlight some projects that include interesting themes and unique traits.
Agrivoltaic Pavilion prototype & designs in 'Sustainable Architecture & Aesthetics.' Transforming BIPVs with custom 3D-printed filters and panels for site-specific solar collection. Courtesy Sabin Design Lab at Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and the DEfECT Lab at Arizona State University. Image Courtesy of Jenny E. Sabin
Why research and innovate in architecture? In a conversation with architectural designer Jenny E. Sabin, we delve into the critical link between research and practice in architecture. Seeking the development of a new model, her team incorporates an interdisciplinary approach that introduces connections between these areas, fostering collaboration with both scientists and engineers.
Observing nature’s behavior, the proposed method integrates biological and mathematical discoveries into the design process. After undergoing a systematic testing process, these insights are applied in the project’s generative design phase to create adaptive and responsive material solutions. Analyzing her research and design strategies, we showcase how she translates research into architectural practice.
IKEA’s research and design lab SPACE10 has published The Healthy Home report, the second release in its Future Home report series. The report explores three main themes concerning domestic environments: how our homes protect us from harm, restore our bodies and minds, and enable us to grow through life’s stages. The research aims to evaluate the ways in which homes can positively contribute to and support the rhythms and flows of life. It was developed in collaboration with Morph to develop the visuals supporting the findings.
Willow Technologies is a material research and building technology practice that has been selected as part of ArchDaily's 2023 Best New Practices. Founded by Ghanaian-Filipino designer and architectural scientist Mae-Ling Lokko, it operates in the gap between research, development, and diffusion of bio-based building materials. Working with agro-waste and bio-based materials usually incurs technical questions regarding scalability, industrial production, standardization, fireproofing, and mechanical strength. Exploring this data is where Willow Technologies situates itself, but peculiarly through the lens of developing regions in West Africa. Through comprehensive works with coconuts, moringa, rice, and other indigenous crops, Lokko’s practice has been able to investigate and catalog the material character of various crops, their possible by-products, local transformation techniques, and the prospect and challenges of scalability as building materials.
Jingru (Cyan) Cheng . Image Courtesy of Wheelwright Prize
Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced Jingru (Cyan) Cheng as the recipient of the 2023 Wheelwright Prize, a study grant created to support globally-minded research and investigative approaches to contemporary architecture. The winning research project, titled “Tracing Sand: Phantom Territories, Bodies Adrift,” delves into the multifaceted impacts of sand mining and reclamation, understood from cultural, economic, and ecological perspectives. The unassuming material has become an indispensable element for our built environment and human communities, serving as a vital component in the production of glass, concrete, asphalt roads, and artificial land. Yet the process of dredging underwater systems and sand mining leads to the disruption of habitats in a process that simultaneously shapes one habitat while devastating another.
The Croatian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 celebrates the harmonious coexistence of the wild and domesticated, natural and man-made, and inanimate and living elements. Modeled after the Lonja Wetlands in Croatia, where communities that have adapted to the continuously shifting landscape have coexisted harmoniously for generations to create a dynamic habitat, the Pavilion is a hub for ongoing research into potential futures through educational experimentation and practice. The exhibition was curated by Mia Roth and Tonči Čerina, in collaboration with their design team: Luka Fatović, Vedran Kasap, Ozana Ursić, Niko Mihaljević, and Ivica Mitrović .“Same As It Ever Was” places a focus on the connections among actors from various backgrounds around the world.
Finding effective and valuable solutions for agricultural waste management has been an inspiring challenge for researchers. By-products from monocultures, such as residues from soybean production, corn cobs, straw, sunflower seeds, and cellulose, are often destined for soil composting, used as animal feed, or even converted into energy in order to reduce waste and mitigate the environmental impacts associated with agricultural activities. Sugarcane production, for example, generates a significant amount of by-products, totaling about 600 million tons of bagasse fiber waste from an annual production of two billion tons of sugarcane. This by-product has a promising potential to replace energy-intensive building systems, such as concrete and brick, by providing building materials that combine sustainability and structural efficiency.
With this perspective in mind, the University of East London (UEL), in partnership with Grimshaw Architects and manufacturer Tate & Lyle Sugar, has developed an innovative building material called Sugarcrete™. The aim of the project is to explore sustainable building solutions by recycling biological by-products from sugarcane, which in turn reduces carbon emissions in the construction industry – all while prioritizing social and environmental sustainability during the production and implementation of these building materials.
The Graham Foundation has announced the award of 64 new grants to individuals exploring innovative and interdisciplinary ideas that contribute critical perspectives on architecture and design in 2023.
Chiesi Group, a pharmaceutical company that focuses on research-based innovation, has prioritized the health of patients across all age groups for over 85 years. Seeking the development of the next healthcare landmark for innovation, they launchedRestore to Impact, an international call for entries to redesign the historic industrial site in Via Palermo, Parma.
Open to two categories –Professionals and Under 30s– the competition aims to find innovative, evolutionary and transversal proposals that will be the basis for the guidelines of the future architectural building project. The winning proposals for the three eligible concepts for the professional category will receive € 12,000 each, while the Under 30 category will receive € 5,000 each.
A fountain of sinks . Image Courtesy of Arvi Anderson
The Estonian Centre for Architecture has chosen the exhibition “Home Stage,” curated by Aet Ader, Arvi Anderson, Mari Möldre of b210 Architects, to represent the Pavilion of Estonia at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Hosted in a rental apartment close to the rear exit of the Arsenale complex, the exhibition explores the contradiction between the living place as a home and as an exchange value. Various Estonian performers will each spend a month in the Venetian rental apartment, which will become both a home and a stage. The exhibition will be open from May 20 to November 26, 2023.
Switzerland’s project for its national pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia will be curated by Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung to explore territorial relationships within the Giardini of La Biennale. Titled “Neighbours,” their project is focused on the spatial and structural proximity between the Swiss Pavilion and its Venezuelan neighbor. By turning architecture itself into the exhibit, the project also highlights the bond between the architects of the two structures: the Swiss Bruno Giacometti (1907 - 2012) and the Italian Carlo Scarpa (1906 - 1978). The exhibition will be on display from May 20 to November 26, 2023.
Baia di Ieranto. Image Courtesy of Fosbury Architecture
The project for the Italian Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will be curated by Fosbury Architecture, a collective composed of Giacomo Ardesio, Alessandro Bonizzoni, Nicola Campri, Veronica Caprino, and Claudia Mainardi. Fosbury Architecture’s vision for the exhibition is based on a research practice that sees design as the result of collective and collaborative work. From January to April, leading up to the opening of the Biennale, nine site-specific interventions titled “Spaziale presenta” are set out to activate different locations across Italy.
This book explores the interdisciplinary project that brings the long tradition of humanistic inquiry in architecture together with cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence. The main goal of ‘Neural Architecture’ is to understand how to interrogate artificial intelligence—a technological tool—in the field of architectural design, traditionally a practice that combines humanities and visual arts.
The former Berlin-Tegel Airport is set to be redeveloped. The master plan includes the Schumacher Quartier, a new residential district with 200 hectares of landscaped area, and a research and industrial park for urban technologies, Berlin TXL – the Urban Tech Republic. Besides creating a space for industry, business, and science, the innovation park aims to research and test urban technologies. The park will focus on major themes in the development of cities: the efficient use of energy, sustainable construction, eco-friendly mobility, recycling, networked control of systems, clean water, and the application of new materials.
The Graham Foundation has announced the award of 56 new grants to individuals exploring ideas that expand contemporary understandings of architecture. The recipients have been selected from an open call that resulted in nearly 500 submissions. The selected projects are led by 81 individuals with diverse backgrounds. The funded projects, including exhibitions, publications, films, and podcasts, among other formats, encourage experimentation and foster critical discourse in architecture.
