Rethinking the production and use cycles of materials in architecture

Have you ever heard of “agrowaste design”? This is how Filipino-Ghanaian architect Mae-Ling Lokko titles her work, a pioneering research initiative on the use of biomaterials in architecture. Alongside the growing demand for food production and housing in the 21st century, there is an equally fast-growing flow of material resources in the form of agricultural byproducts. This has the potential not only to close product lifecycle loops but also to foster forms of generative citizenship through upcycling.

Lokko seeks to rethink product cycles and use within the construction industry through a circular economy—where nothing is wasted and everything can be reused, even after it becomes obsolete.

The architect is also a professor and researcher at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where she studies how to transform agricultural waste (from coconut husks to hemp stalks) into clean, high-performance building systems for humidity control, indoor air quality remediation, and water quality control applications.