Recent architectural discourse has increasingly turned toward the expanded distribution of agency, particularly privileging biological and digital entities. Within this framework, the notion of aliveness—and synonyms—is frequently restricted to living systems, thereby excluding human-manufactured materials from being considered active participants in architectural processes. Yet a larger anti-anthropocentric perspective invites a broader understanding: aliveness need not be the exclusive domain of living entities but may also emerge from the contingent behaviors of human-made materials themselves. Vulcanized fiber (VF)—a chemically bonded cellulose compound derived from textile and cotton waste, and thus a biomaterial—embodies this condition. Exhibiting unpredictable responses as it transitions from wet pliability to dry rigidity, VF resists complete instrumentalization. Its expressive transformations are shaped by manual and environmental interactions, rendering it an active material rather than passive matter.

This contribution presents a design research case study that explores the collaborative co-design and co-construction of a spatial structure using vulcanized fiber. Unlike conventional construction materials, VF cannot be fully predetermined: when transitioning from wet to dry, each piece undergoes unpredictable curling, warping, and dimensional shifts. Here, aliveness is conceptualized in the persistent divergence between the geometry intended in the preliminary design and the morphology that ultimately emerges through fabrication. To engage with this variability productively, the design and construction processes employ technological tools—3D scanning, computational combinatorics, and augmented reality holographic instructions—not to enforce control, but to register and adapt to these deviations. Construction tolerances, allowances, and flexible assembly protocols become essential, making each VF element a singular participant in the collective construction.By foregrounding the incapacity to predict exact form, the project emphasizes the agency of an industrially produced biomaterial and reframes its role in architectural practice. The aliveness of VF lies precisely in its resistance to replication and its demand for negotiation in both design and assembly. This challenges the conventional dichotomy between nature and manufacture, as well as the assumption that industrial products are inert and uniform. Instead, the project demonstrates that the industrially fabricated can also introduce contingency, difference, and co-performance—forms of aliveness—into the architectural processes.

Armstrong, Rachel. 2018. Soft Living Architecture: An Alternative View of Bio-Informed Practice. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.

Beesley, Philip. Hylozoic Ground: Liminal Responsive Architecture: Liminal Responsive Architecture. Riverside Architectural Press, 2020.

Coole, Diana. 2010. “The Inertia of Matter and the Generativity of Flesh.” In New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics, edited by Diana Coole and Samantha Frost. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.

Garcia, Mark, ed. 2024. Posthuman Architectures: Theories, Designs, Technologies and Futures. Vol. 94. 1 vols. AD Architectural Design. London: Wiley.

Pasquero, Claudia, and Marco Poletto. 2023. Biodesign in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Deep Green. London and New York: Routledge.

Scholz, Ronja; Mittendorf, Roman-Marius; Engels, Jenni; Hartmaier, Alexander, and Walther, Frank. 2016. Direction-dependent mechanical characterization of cellulose-based composite vulcanized fiber, Mater. Test. 58, 813-817.

Foams are ubiquitous across industries such as construction, aerospace, furniture, and packaging. Their appeal lies in a unique combination of properties: extremely low weight relative to volume, high thermal and acoustic insulation, and the capacity to absorb shocks and impacts. Beyond utility, foams also transformed the way bodies meet surfaces, introducing softness, cushioning, and responsiveness into everyday design.

Yet most foams in use today are petroleum-based, toxic, and chemically irreversible, making them non-recyclable waste at end of life. This research addresses that condition by developing a biodegradable and thermoreversible biofoam system based on gelatin, glycerin, and water. By combining these ingredients with foaming agents such as sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, or surfactants, a castable foam is produced whose stiffness and porosity can be tuned through recipe variation. Unlike polyurethane foams, the resulting material can be re-melted, re-cast, and reintegrated into new batches, closing the material loop. Failed components or off-cuts are returned to the system, establishing the foam as a reusable medium rather than a single-use product.

To translate this into a design prototype, the research introduces a robotic casting method where a UR5e arm tilts molds during the curing process, using gravity to guide the flow of differently graded mixtures. This enables continuous gradation between softer and firmer regions without multi-part assembly. The findings demonstrate three qualities: (i) the feasibility of thermoreversible biofoam fabrication, (ii) the successful integration of robotic casting as a method for embedding gradients, and (iii) the capacity to spatialize responsiveness within a single material system. This work builds on research into functionally graded and variable-property materials in architecture, which has emphasized the potential of spatially differentiated matter to replace discrete assemblies. Potential applications include adaptive insulation panels, responsive cushioning, and graded surface assemblies that tune softness or rigidity to performance requirements. The project culminates in a curvature-driven wall panel prototype, in which zones of softness and stiffness are distributed according to surface geometry. Current limitations concern scale, environmental durability, and long-term performance, which are identified as areas for future development.

Grigoriadis, Kostas. 2016. Mixed Matters: A Multi-Material Design Compendium. Berlin: JOVIS Verlag.

Kalia, Karun, and Amir Ameli. 2024. “Additive Manufacturing of Functionally Graded Foams: Material Extrusion Process Design, Part Design, and Mechanical Testing.” Additive Manufacturing 79: 103005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2023.103945.

Kalia, Karun, David Kazmer, and Amir Ameli. 2025. “A Co-Extrusion Additive Manufacturing Process with Mixer Nozzle to Dynamically Control Blowing Agent Content and Print Functionally Graded Foams.” ACS Appl. Eng. Mater. 2025, 3, 3, 625–635 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaenm.4c00764.

Lazaro Vasquez, Eldy S., Netta Ofer, Shanel Wu, Mary Etta West, Mirela Alistar, and Laura Devendorf. 2022. “Exploring Biofoam as a Material for Tangible Interaction.” In Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’22), 1525–39. New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533494.

Mogas-Soldevila, Laia, Jorge Duro-Royo, and Neri Oxman. 2015. “Form Follows Flow: A Material-Driven Computational Workflow for Digital Fabrication of Large-Scale Hierarchically Structured Objects.” In ACADIA 2015: Computational Ecologies: Design in the Anthropocene, 146–57. Cincinnati, OH: Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). http://rb.gy/9dtv9.

Mueller, Caitlin T., and Kam-Ming Mark Tam. 2017. “Additive Manufacturing Along Principal Stress Lines.” 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing 4 (2): 63–81. https://doi.org/10.1089/3dp.2017.0001.

Sabin, Jenny, Eda Begum Birol, Yao Lu, Ege Sekkin, Colby Johnson, David Moy, and Yaseen Islam. 2019. “PolyBrick 2.0: Bio-Integrative Load Bearing Structures.” In ACADIA 2019: Ubiquity and Autonomy, 222–33. Austin, TX: Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). https://doi.org/10.7298/7ky7-4e52.

With biomaterial fabrication on the rise across architecture and design, it is essential to conceive, develop, disseminate and teach tailored design strategies that address the inherent properties of biomaterials. While robotic 3D printing offers a promising platform to support such a shift in architectural production, biomaterials remain challenging due to their volatility and performance limitations. In response, two approaches have emerged: one seeks to overcome these constraints through technological innovation, while the other embraces the constraints by developing fabrication-informed design strategies that address the material´s behaviour. The student work in Figure 1 focuses on the latter by exploring how material characteristics can guide innovative design processes in the framework of a Design & Build elective course, instructed by the author. The course brief challenged students to rethink design objects or architectural components within the confines of a predetermined material system: construction timber combined with a 3D-printable paste from wood derivatives. The biomaterial mixture used is both biodegradable and suitable for circular reuse, making it well-suited for rapid prototyping in an educational context as well as for future applications in sustainable architecture. The circular material life cycle (Figure 2) is adaptable to locally available resources, as the biomaterial only contains plant fibers and gelatine. Since the 3D printed paste hardens slowly through natural drying, its physical behaviour shapes the design process. Students applied this knowledge by slowly drying 3D-printed, flat panels on a curved formwork to produce curved shingles in an otherwise unprintable shape (Figure 1a). Others applied their understanding of the material´s non-uniform, yet heuristically predictable shrinkage behaviour to fabricate conical components for a pressure arch (Figure 1b). These examples demonstrate that in biomaterial fabrication, material constraints are not merely limitations – they actively shape the design process. Thereby, material agency shifts from a (emergent) design intention to a technical asset. Beyond the communication of technical knowledge and practical research experience, the teaching initiative also trains future generations of architects in material- and fabrication-oriented design thinking by fostering problem-solving skills for complex material systems in preparation for the challenges of a world of ecological disruption and resource scarcity.

Bauer, Kilian. “Exploring Multi-Materiality: challenges and potential pathways for scaling up 3D printing of biomaterials.” Cambridge Open Engage (2025). https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2025-3h9s0 This content is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed.

Grigoriadis, Kostas, and Guan Lee. 3D Printing and Material Extrusion in Architecture: Construction and Design Manual. DOM Publishers, 2024.

Kolarevic, Branko and, Kevin R. Klinger. Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. Routledge, 2008.

Kretzer, Manuel and Sina Mostafavi. “Robotic Fabrication with Bioplastic Materials: Digital design and robotic production of biodegradable objects.” In Proceedings of the 38th eCAADe Conference Vol. 1, 603-12. Berlin: eCAADe, 2020. https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2020.1.603

Mohite, Ashish, Mariia Kochneva, and Toni Kotnik. “Speed of Deposition. Vehicle for structural and aesthetic expression in CAM.” In Proceedings of the 37th eCAADe Conference Vol. 1, 729-38. Porto: eCAADe, 2019. https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2019.1.729

Rasch, Miriam, Harma Staal, and Jojanneke Gijsen. Hands on Research for Artists, Designers & Educators. Set Margins’, 2024.

Rosenthal, Michael, Clara Henneberger, Anna Gutkes, and Claus-Thomas Bues. “Liquid Deposition Modeling: a promising approach for 3D printing of wood.” European Journal of Wood and Wood Products 76, no. 2 (2018): 797–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-017-1274-8

Rossi, Gabriella, Ruxandra-Stefania Chiujdea, and Laura Hochegger et al. “Integrated design strategies for multi-scalar biopolymer robotic 3d printing.” In Proceedings of the 42nd ACADIA Conference, 346-55. Philadelphia: ACADIA, 2022.

Stuart-Smith, Robert, Patrick Danahy, and Natalia La Revelo Rotta. “Topological and Material Formation. A Generative Design Framework for Additive Manufacturing Integration Material-Physics Simulation and Structural Analysis.” In In Proceedings of the 40th ACADIA Conference, 290-99. Online + Global: ACADIA, 2021.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNep). 2022 global status report for buildings and construction: Towards a zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector. UNep, 2022. https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/2022-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction

Developed within the framework of an ongoing PhD in architecture, this design research project examines how environmentally conscious design decisions that account for ideological, behavioural, material, and spatial implications can shape architecture across multiple scales. From urban morphology and building typologies to surface articulation and micro-material detail, the research positions architecture as a medium of cultural agency and ecological responsibility rather than a neutral problem-solving tool.

The project combines design theory, historical analysis, and empirical material experimentation, using contemporary digital fabrication as both a conceptual lens and an operational platform. At its centre is a series of 3D-printed sand samples to test how formal variation and geometric resolution affect environmental performance. Each component's outer facing surface is set at a specific level of detail, with LOD00 having a flat, continuous surface, LOD01 introducing moderate articulation, and LOD02 featuring higher-resolution complexity. Working across these three resolutions reveals how shifts in geometry and texture shape the material’s behaviour, thereby cultivating distinct surface delineations under weathering tests.

To broaden the scope of results, components are produced by two manufacturers using different sand-printing technologies and binder systems. Additionally, these samples are treated with various coatings, such as water-repellent and UV-resistant coatings, to examine how surface treatments interact with geometry and environmental exposure. This enables an elemental comparison of how different material and design choices impact the durability of the samples, their potential for reuse, and their resistance to local meteorological conditions.

The study treats resolution not merely as a formal or aesthetic choice but as a performative and conceptual variable that informs material lifespan, spatial expression, and environmental responsiveness. Rather than dismissing ornament and surface complexity as decorative, the research positions them as critical drivers of circularity and design intention.

The theoretical framework draws on Vilém Flusser’s critique of design as programmatic control, Philippe Morel’s digital rationalism and modular automation, and Albert Farwell Bemis’s vision of prefabricated construction. Through the synthesis of theoretical inquiry and material practice, this project proposes a model of architecture that is materially specific, ecologically informed, and critically engaged with the complexities of contemporary design.

Bemis, Albert Farwell. 1936. The Evolving House. Vol. III, Rational Design. Cambridge, MA: Technology Press (MIT).

Flusser, Vilém. Vom Stand der Dinge: Eine kleine Philosophie des Design. Edited by Fabian Wurm. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022. ISBN 978-3-96999-069-8

Morel, Philippe, and Henriette Bier, eds. 2023. Disruptive Technologies: The Convergence of New Paradigms in Architecture. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14160-7

Bioreceptive Design reframes building façades as dynamic, living surfaces shaped by multispecies cohabitation, where material ageing and biological growth become integral to architectural expression (Cruz, 2021; Cruz & Beckett, 2016). Mosses, particularly suited to such environments due to their poikilohydric nature, contribute to urban ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, nitrogen cycling, and stormwater retention (Anderson et al., 2010; Elbert et al., 2012). Despite this, the precise environmental parameters that support moss development on vertical urban surfaces remain insufficiently mapped.

This research introduces a prototype monitoring instrument that integrates environmental sensor data and near-infrared imaging to study moss behaviour over time. Bridging bryology, ecological science, and digital fabrication, the system tracks physiological responses of Syntrichia ruralis in relation to changes in light intensity and colour, temperature, and humidity—factors known to influence photosynthetic performance (Coe & Sparks, 2014; Griffin-Nolan et al., 2018; Zotz et al., 2000; Zotz & Rottenberger, 2001).

The closed-loop chamber measures real-time CO₂ uptake and O₂ production as proxies for net photosynthesis, while NDVI and NPCI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index and Normalised Pigment Chlorophyll Ratio Index) are extracted from sequential imaging to assess active photosynthetic regions non-destructively (Graham et al., 2006; Young & Reed, 2017). These datasets are processed via a novel Python-based program on a Raspberry Pi to visualise moss responses through time-series data and correlate physiological shifts with environmental changes.

Initial findings demonstrate measurable effects of fluctuating temperature and light conditions on moss carbon dynamics. The system enables the mapping of optimal parameters that enhance photosynthetic efficiency, providing a model for curated propagation on bioreceptive substrates. Beyond empirical results, this project proposes a tool for embedding ecological intelligence into architecture, enabling a responsive design process in which living systems co-author material choices.

By coupling digital sensing with visual proxies of plant behaviour and data sonification (Zelada & Çamcı, 2024), this prototype supports a biocentric methodology where design responds to and integrates biological organisms. It lays the groundwork for adaptive architectural strategies rooted in environmental responsiveness, biological performance, and non-human agency.

Anderson, M., Lambrinos, J., & Schroll, E. (2010). The potential value of mosses for stormwater management in urban environments. Urban Ecosystems, 13(3), 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-010-0121-z

Coe, K. K., & Sparks, J. P. (2014). Physiological Ecology of Dryland Biocrust Mosses. In D. T. Hanson & S. K. Rice (Eds.), Photosynthesis in Bryophytes and Early Land Plants (pp. 291–308). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6988-5

Cruz, M. (2021). Design for Ageing Buildings. In L. Duanfang (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Architectural History (pp. 384–400). Routledge.

Cruz, M., & Beckett, R. (2016). Bioreceptive design: A novel approach to biodigital materiality. Architectural Research Quarterly, 20(1), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135516000130

Elbert, W., Weber, B., Burrows, S., Steinkamp, J., Büdel, B., Andreae, M. O., & Pöschl, U. (2012). Contribution of cryptogamic covers to the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Nature Geoscience, 5(7), 459–462. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1486

Graham, E. A., Hamilton, M. P., Mishler, B. D., Rundel, P. W., & Hansen, M. H. (2006). Use of a networked digital camera to estimate net CO2 uptake of a desiccation-tolerant moss. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 167(4), 751–758. https://doi.org/10.1086/503786

Griffin-Nolan, R. J., Zelehowsky, A., Hamilton, J. G., & Melcher, P. J. (2018). Green light drives photosynthesis in mosses. Journal of Bryology, 40(4), 342–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/03736687.2018.1516434

Young, K. E., & Reed, S. C. (2017). Spectrally monitoring the response of the biocrust moss Syntrichia caninervis to altered precipitation regimes. Scientific Reports, 7(July 2016), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep41793

Zelada, E., & Çamcı, A. (2024). Conveying climate data through immersive sonification and interactive plant art in Unnatural Nature. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-024-01807-7

Zotz, G., & Rottenberger, S. (2001). Seasonal changes in diel CO2 exchange of three central european moss species: A one-year field study. Plant Biology, 3(6), 661–669. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2001-19363

Zotz, G., Schweikert, A., Jetz, W., & Westerman, H. (2000). Water relations and carbon gain are closely related to cushion size in the moss Grimmia pulvinata. New Phytologist, 148(1), 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-8137.2000.00745.x

Weathering is traditionally seen as a process of decay, yet it holds the potential to activate ecological functions and enhance architectural expression (Mostafavi & Leatherbarrow, 1993). This project repositions weathering as a productive ecological force that can transform buildings with aesthetic depth, material richness, and the capacity to host life. As structures age, weathering processes (chemical, physical, and biological) gradually unlock nutrients from mineral substrates and generate micro-environments capable of supporting plant and microbial colonization. This research asks how architectural design can intentionally harness weathering as a driver for ecological succession and biodiversity in urban contexts.

Central to this inquiry are three agents: phosphorus dynamics in lithic substrates, biologically enhanced rock weathering, and the use of ornamentation to generate conditions for bioreceptivity. The objective is to reconceptualize buildings as active geological-ecological systems that evolve through time and contribute to the metabolic and ecological health of cities. Through a multi-pronged approach involving lab experiments, fabrication, computation, and environmental simulation, the study explores how buildings can be designed to kickstart self-sustaining ecological processes by integrating systems as active agents that interact with natural cycles through the investigations of synthetic lichen, spontaneous vegetation, biomaterial, and capillary rise.

Organisms that inhabit lithic environments exhibit adaptations to nutrient scarcity and extreme conditions, playing a critical role in mineral cycling (Yusuf, 2020). Phosphorus, an essential and finite nutrient for plant growth, is locked within mineral substrates such as limestone—commonly used in construction—but becomes bioavailable through microbial metabolism (Porder & Ramachandram, 2013). This, in combination with the utilization of classical architectural motifs, is reconfigured to create new biogenic forms that prioritize diverse microclimates and colonization of microbes and plants. Decorative elements with complex geometries then generate niches that modulate environmental conditions and are strategized to direct nutrient distribution.

By rethinking urban surfaces and leveraging innovative substrates and microbial interactions, this research proposes a new paradigm for biologically integrated architecture by rethinking urban surfaces and leveraging innovative substrates and microbial interactions, strategizing systematic design through nutrient flows. By embedding life into our constructed landscapes, architecture can foster deeper connections between built structures and their ecosystems, redefining aesthetics and functionality through ecological resilience.

Alberti, M. (2005). The Effects of Urban Patterns on Ecosystem Function. International Regional Science Review, 28(2), 168–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017605275160

Kallison, E.R. (2021) "A Review of the Contributions by Lichen to Building Soil," IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt: Vol. 5, Article 1.

Khakhar, A. (2023). A roadmap for the creation of synthetic lichen. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 654, 87–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.BBRC.2023.02.079

Larson, Doug W; Matthes, Uta; Kelly, Peter E; Lundholm, Jeremy; Gerrath, John A.  Ekistics; Athens Vol. 71, Iss. 424-426, (Jan-Jun 2004): 75-82

Latt, Z. K., Yu, S., Kyaw, E. P., Lynn, T. M., May, Nwe, T., & Mon, W. W. (2018). Isolation, Evaluation and Characterization of Free Living Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria from Agricultural Soils in Myanmar for Biofertilizer Formulation.

Lisci, M. & Pacini, E. (1993) "Plants Growing on the Walls of Italian Towns: An Ecological and Floristic Study." Phytocoenologia, vol. 23, no. 4.

Mayrand, F., Clergeau, P., Vergnes, A., & Madre, F. (2018). Vertical Greening Systems as Habitat for Biodiversity. Nature Based Strategies for Urban and Building Sustainability, 227–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812150-4.00021-5

Mostafavi, M., & Leatherbarrow, D. (1993). On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time. The MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262631440/on-weathering/

Porder, S., & Ramachandran, S. (2013). The phosphorus concentration of common rocks-a potential driver of ecosystem P status. Plant and Soil, 367(1–2), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11104-012-1490-2

Yusuf, M. (2020). Lichen-derived products : extraction and applications (M. Yusuf, Ed.) [Book]. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Cities have long been designed as exclusive habitats for humans, often diminishing space for other life forms. However, recent work in urban ecology shows that cities can support surprisingly high biodiversity. Urbanization creates physical and chemical barriers that fragment ecosystems, and one such overlooked barrier, but also a site of opportunity, is the architectural surface. While nature-based solutions often address green and blue infrastructure, buildings themselves are rarely explored as active contributors to biodiversity. This thesis addresses that gap by reimagining building facades as bioreceptive membranes—living interfaces embedded with ecological potential.

Drawing on the concept of “architectural bark”, the study investigates how poikilohydric organisms like mosses and lichens can colonize building surfaces. The research followed four phases: defining the Client (organism), selecting the Host (substrate), shaping the Design (morphology), and choosing the Tool (fabrication method). Emphasis was placed on locally sourced, bio-based materials from waste streams to support circularity. Scaffold geometries were designed to enhance colonization through surface complexity, shading, and water retention. Additive manufacturing was selected over casting and molding for its ability to create micro-grooves that increase porosity and support biofilm attachment.

A prototype cladding panel was fabricated using cork and charcoal using the multi-material additive manufacturing technique developed at IaaC. Cork provided structure and insulation, while charcoal introduced bioreceptive zones in a functionally graded composite. Serving as a proof of concept for bioreceptive retrofits, the panel demonstrates the viability of creating ecologically responsive surfaces. Though small in scale, it is envisioned for application in retrofit buildings, aligning with zero-carbon renovation strategies in cities like Barcelona.

This early-stage research confirms the material and fabrication feasibility of bioreceptive surfaces, while highlighting the need for long-term assessment of ecological colonization, climatic resilience and architectural integration. The prototype demonstrates how bio-based, additively manufactured components can support ecological connectivity and enhance urban biodiversity. Positioned at the intersection of biology, technology, and architecture, the study reframes the building envelope as a symbiotic membrane—an infrastructure of care and cohabitation. As a scalable pilot, the prototype outlines both the potential and next steps for embedding aliveness into urban construction.

Katti Madhusudan. "Coral Reefs of the land". Current Conservation, Vol 11.4. 2022. https://www. currentconservation.org/coral-reefs-of-the-land

Cruz, M., & Beckett, R. "Bioreceptive design: a novel approach to biodigital materiality." Architectural Research Quarterly, 20(1): 51–64. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1359135516000130

Lim, A. C. S., & Lharchi, A. "Parameters for bio-receptivity in 3D printing". In Sustainable Development Goals Series (pp. 701–715). 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36320-7_44

Mayor-Luque R., Beguin N., Riaz R., Diaz J. & Pandey S. "Multi-material Gradient Additive Manufacturing: A data-driven performative design approach to multi-materiality through robotic fabrication". 2024. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388028385_Multi-material_Gradient_Additive_Manufacturing_A_data-driven_performative_design_approach_to_multi-materiality_through_robotic_fabrication

This research project investigates methods for designing building envelopes activated by greywater to integrate the built environment into the functions of the ecosystem. The building envelope is approached as both an interface and a regenerative infrastructure for multispecies commoning by addressing the connected issues of urban water management, climate resilience, air and water pollution, as well as the loss of urban biodiversity caused by resource pollution and habitat fragmentation. The project explores design methods of harvesting, circulating, storing, and bioremediating greywater to increase bioreceptivity, aiming to create circular thermodynamic and biochemical chain reactions that benefit multiple levels of biodiversity and humans alike. From hand-building vertical clay-based landscapes, to utilizing digital hydrodynamic form-finding tools, the project combines analogue and digital design and fabrication, along with embodied, empirical, and scientific forms of knowledge, to enrich the architectural design process. Using biotechnological tools of production and monitoring, the aim is to promote the growth of specific biofilms and bryophyte species capable of efficient oxygen production, carbon dioxide fixation, and water bioremediation. The living biomass can in turn mitigate the effects of urban heat and create an approximate micro-climate of comfort for multiple species. This vibrant bio-protective layer functions in synergy with an overlapping system embedded in the envelope, providing commons such as habitat, nutrition, and survival resources to local keystone species of fauna and flora. The project draws on morphological and organizational principles of mutualistic relationships in nature, especially the relationship between poriferans and their endosymbionts, while also addressing the potential for predation and conflict among species, bridging architecture and urban ecology. Informed by landscape architecture, the envelope is intended as an experimental vertical field where multimodal and more-than-human care practices can unfold. This approach shifts architectural design from a predictive process seeking control and stability to a dynamic process of learning from biological agency and designing systems capable of biological adaptation and interaction in a physical world that is rapidly changing.

San Francisco Estuary Institute. Making Nature’s City: A Science-Based Framework for Building Urban Biodiversity. SFEI Publication #947, 2019.

Zaera, Alejandro, and Jeffrey S. Anderson. The Ecologies of the Building Envelope: A Material History and Theory of Architectural Surfaces. Actar D, 2021.

Poikolainen Rosén, Anton, Antti Salovaara, Andrea Botero, and Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard, eds. More-than-Human Design in Practice. Routledge, 2025.

Beckett, Richard. Probiotic Cities. Bio Design. Routledge, 2024.

Sharma, Sanjay K., ed. Bioremediation: A Sustainable Approach to Preserving Earth’s Water. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

Stohl, Leonie, Tanja Manninger, Julia Von Werder, Frank Dehn, Anna Gorbushina, and Birgit Meng. “Bioreceptivity of Concrete: A Review.” Journal of Building Engineering 76 (October 2023): 107201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2023.107201.

Stauridēs, Stauros. Towards the City of Thresholds. Common Notions, 2019.

Puig de la Bellacasa, María. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. Posthumanities 41. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Armstrong, Rachel. Liquid Life: On Non-Linear Materiality. With Project Muse. Punctum books, 2019.

According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 55% of the Dutch land surface is at risk of flooding – 26% of the country is below sea level, and 29% is potentially susceptible to river flooding.[1] If since 1900 sea level rise of the North Sea near the Dutch coast has been 19 cm, which is comparable with the global average,^[2] over the last decades, sea level rise near the Dutch coast has increased to 3 mm per year, an increase by 50% compared with the average rate of sea level rise over the 20th century.

In acknowledging the challenges caused by climate change, different educational initiatives have recently taken place across the country to investigate urban and architectural solutions. Among those, is “Resilience by Design”, a pedagogic model implemented at TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, within the Public Building Group.

This proposal will illustrate the principles, the tools and the architectural examples of “Resilience-by-Design”. In Resilience-by-Design, climate change is studied and investigated at the scale of architecture – that is, the design of the buildings: how buildings can prepare for climate change, how their structure can adapt to uncertain scenarios, what spatial and material characteristics they need to acquire in order to resist shocks. Students learn concrete principles: adaptability, reuse, modular expansion, disassembly, flexibility. Each of those principles implies different techniques and design decisions – clear spans, generous floor-to-floor heights, flat floors, interior non-load-bearing partitions, raised corridor / circulation, water storage, wet-proofing materials, exposed connections, use of mechanical fasteners. In applying those and other decisions, students acknowledge the importance of designing for and with climate change, and familiarize with innovative design strategies which favor reuse rather new constructions, sustainability rather than land consumption.

[1] Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, https://www.pbl.nl/en/correction-wording-flood-risks

^[2] Platform Communication on Climate Change, 2006. The state of the climate 2006 (text in Dutch), 23 pp.

On Resilience-by-Design as pedagogic model

- Jan Van den Akker, Koeno Gravemeijer, Susan McKenney, Nienke Nieveen. Educational Design Research (London: Routledge, 2006).

- Kees Dorst, Notes On Design, How Creative Practice Works (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2018).

- Ranulph Glanville, ‘Researching Design and Designing Research,’ in Design Issues, Summer, 1999, Vol. 15, No. 2, Design Research (Summer, 1999), pp. 80-91. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511844

- Alan Lipman, Strategies for Architectural Research: A Comment, in Architectural Research and Teaching, November 1970, Vol. 1, No. 2 (November 1970), pp. 56-57. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/24654980

- Jan Silberberger (ed.), Against and For Method. Revisiting Architectural Design as Research (Zurich, GTA Verlag, 2021).

- Henk Slager, (ed). The Postresearch Condition (Utrecht: Metropolis M Books, 2021).

- Igea Troiani and Suzanne Ewing, Visual Research Methods in Architecture (Bristol: Intellect, 2021).

On Resilient Architecture

- A+T 39-40, RECLAIM Remediate Reuse Recycle. (Spanish and English Edition), 2012.

- AIA (American Institute of Architects), Buildings that last: Design for Adaptability, Deconstruction, and Reuse: https://content.aia.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/ADR-Guide-final_0.pdf

- BNA (The Royal Institute of Dutch Architects), We Are Going Circular. BNA Manifesto (Amsterdam: BNA, 2017).

- Jonas Bäckström, The Adaptable Dwelling. How does the Open Building and flexible design perform in residential architecture? Thesis Report. Umeå School of Architecture, 2022-04-13.

- IKE (Institut Konstruktives Entwerfen), Re-Use in Construction: A Compendium of Circular Architecture (Zurich: Park Books, 2022).

- Kasper Guldager Jensen, John Sommer (eds.), Building A Circular Future (Copenhagen: GXN, 2016).

- Steven Lammersen, How Can We Design for a Remountable and Flexible Open Building? Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology.

- Yeoryia Manolopoulou, “Open Score Architecture,” in Expanding Fields of Architectural Discourse and Practice: Curated Works from the P.E.A.R. Journal, edited by Matthew Butcher and Megan O’Shea (Los Angeles: UCL Press, 2020), 214–41.

- OASE 85. Productive Uncertainty: Indeterminacy in Spatial Design, Planning and Management, 2012.

- Robert Schmidt and Simon Austin, Adaptable Architecture. Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 2016).

The story of salmon migration in the river Murg in the Northern Black Forest reveals shifting conceptions of aliveness across 200 years of industrial transformation in the Murg Valley, beginning in the 19th century. Rather than portraying the landscape as a passive backdrop, this project investigates it as a living archive of infrastructures, ecological systems, and media technologies. Following the transition from a craft-based to an industrialized fluvial economy, a series of technological thresholds are examined as temporal entry points to explore how infrastructures fundamentally altered biological, ecological, and socio-cultural networks. Cultural perspectives, from Wilhelm Hauff’s tale Das kalte Herz to a contemporary initiative promoting a salmon-themed hiking trail, illustrate how socio-ecological imaginaries of the valley intertwine with its technical and ecological realities.

Central to the investigation is a critique of the persistent romanticization of rural environments through their perceptual division into active, living subjects and passive, objectified matter. Drawing from media studies, philosophy of technology, and ecological humanities, infrastructures are explored as living rejections of such dichotomies.

As the river was restructured for paper production and hydroelectric dams, infrastructures disrupted ecological flows, integrating it into a technical environment and blocking the salmon’s native spawning grounds. Today, however, the relation between technological and biological patterns of life has been reimagined, and the implementation of fish staircases has enabled the salmon’s successful reintroduction to the region. Thus, arriving at a more holistic conception of aliveness is key to moving beyond exclusionary or extractive conceptions of “nature”. The salmon’s return depended not only on ecological restoration but also on cultural and conceptual shifts: infrastructures must be understood as milieu-specific agents, integral to natural environments and capable of enabling and foreclosing existence for a broad range of beings.

Ultimately, the Murg Valley serves as a case study for broader questions of care, remediation, and ecological imagination in the Anthropocene. Integrating scientific and artistic methods, the project contributes to architectural research on how to reconceive the relations between landscapes, nature, and technology. It demonstrates how acknowledging aliveness can cultivate more inclusive strategies of restoration, cohabitation, and the design of livable futures.

Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Fleischhacker, Thomas. “Wie ein Fluss die industrielle Entwicklung erlebt.” In Industrialisierung im Nordschwarzwald, edited by Ralf Hennl and Klaus Krimm, 177–86. Oberrheinische Studien 34. Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2016.

Frichot, Hélène. Creative Ecologies: Theorizing the Practice of Architecture. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.

Kurlansky, Mark. Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of a Common Fate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020.

Neimanis, Astrida. Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.

Scheifele, Martin, Christian Katz, and Ernst Wolf. Die Murgschifferschaft: Geschichte des Flosshandels, des Waldes und der Holzindustrie im Murgtal. Gernsbach: Casimir Katz Verlag, 1988.

Schweinfurth, Wolfgang. “Geographie anthropogener Einflüsse: Das Murgsystem im Nordschwarzwald.” In Mannheimer Geographische Arbeiten, edited by Irmtraud Dörrer, Peter Frankenberg, Walter Gabe, Gernot Höhl, and Christian Jentsch, vol. 26. Mannheim: Universität Mannheim, Geographisches Institut, 1990.

Simondon, Gilbert. On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects. Translated by Cecile Malaspina and John Rogove. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Stiegler, Bernard. Technics and Time, 2: Disorientation. Vol. 2. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.

“Architecture is the daughter of agriculture.”
This phrase reveals an ancient truth: agriculture allowed humans to settle, to build, to shape culture. Through food, we developed a deep relationship with our environment: a direct, bodily understanding of place, season, and material. Food grounds us. Shouldn’t architecture do the same?
Farmers, bakers, and fermenters develop deep knowledge through touch, smell, and time. Their work is shaped by context, not imposed upon it. This is the kind of relational, adaptive intelligence architecture needs.

Fermentation, in particular, embodies this shift. It’s an ancient method of transformation, not through domination, but through collaboration with microorganisms, time, temperature, and material. It cannot be rushed. It resists control. Yet its outcomes are rich, complex, and enduring. What if building were more like fermenting?

We need to rethink the architectural process: the roles, the actions, the hierarchies. Move away from rigid control and toward participation, from acceleration to attunement. Fermentation teaches us to work with what exists, to allow things to evolve, to embrace uncertainty and change. Its slowness is not inefficiency, it’s a kind of care that leads to longevity, quality, and depth.

Like a baker who knows by hand when the dough is ready, architects need tacit knowledge, an intuitive, material understanding built through experience. This is not a return to the past, but a way forward: grounded, responsible, connected.

A fermentative culture of practice redefines architecture as an open, non-linear process. Practices such as studio dreiSt e.g. demonstrate how waste cycles and collective reassembly can carry experimental approaches into first applications. Material, time, and context unfold as feedback loops during the design and construction phase, nourishing the work with knowledge as it emerges. This also means to adapt the design in response to material actual behave, rather than forcing them into predetermined forms. Each process is both continuation and renewal, embedding building within ecological and social metabolisms that regenerate themselves. In this sense, fermentation offers architecture a framework that complements, rather than replaces, conventional approaches: the aim is less to deliver fixed objects than to establish conditions that remain open, adaptive, and relational.

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Ingold, Tim. 2013. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. London: Routledge.

Zilber, David, and René Redzepi. 2018. The Noma Guide to Fermentation. New York: Artisan.

Puig de la Bellacasa, María. 2017. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Morton, Timothy. 2010. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Latour, Bruno. 2018. Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Traditional approaches to longevity in the built environment emphasise durability, permanence, resistance to decay, and minimal maintenance. Maintenance is treated as a technical afterthought, removed from the work of planners, and increasingly, also the inhabitants. I challenge that paradigm by advancing multispecies-maintenance as a framework for regenerative longevity. Rather than preserving structures as static fortresses, this means understanding them as living assemblages sustained through continuous transformation of repair, decomposition, and adaptation by humans and non-humans alike.

Drawing on maintenance studies, material cultures, and Morton’s notion of the hyperobject, I argue that maintenance operates as a temporally vast, distributed process that exceeds human control and understanding. Thus, collective maintenance of our built environment by all living organisms must become a fundamental, situated consideration in all stages. Fungi, mosses, microbes, and other organisms already perform maintenance, regulating humidity, repairing soils, and decomposing matter. These are not metaphors but ecological realities that sustain our environment. Multispecies-maintenance offers a paradigm shift by viewing maintenance as active collaboration between humans and non-humans. Instead of positioning architecture as separate from ecological processes, it integrates living organisms as active stakeholders, fostering symbiotic structures that engage with living networks. This perspective challenges existing norms where layers remain rigidly separated and controlled, in contrast to the entanglements found in natural systems. Thus, multispecies-maintenance becomes how buildings participate in life, rather than shield against it. It opens the potential to redistribute labour across species, countering the commodification and rigid separations that define current practices and ownership.

Unfortunately, fetishisation of novelty, “purity”, and capital neglects the behavioural shifts necessary for implementation and currently offers no examples. Thus, my argumentations sit in a space of critical theory and negative capability. What it offers is a methodology, a new palimpsest vernacular, collaborative, inter-species architecture, rebuilding the relationship between the environment and its inhabitants by reconstituting the genius loci eroded by capitalist commodification.

The necessary shift is examined in two phases: The Now, a messy transitional space for unlearning and interim materiality; and The Future, where maintenance, decay, and biological intelligence are embedded at conception into architectural systems and computational/material logic.

Andréen, David, and Ana Goidea. “Principles of Biological Design as a Model for Biodesign and Biofabrication in Architecture.” Architecture, Structures and Construction 2 (May 11, 2022): 481–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44150-022-00049-6.

Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn. Penguin, 1995.

Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe. Vittorio Klostermann, 2000.

Héléne Frichot. Dirty Theory. Troubling Architecture. Braunach: Deutscher Spurbuchverlag, 2019.

MATERIAL CULTURES. MATERIAL REFORM. MACK, 2022.

Mattern, Shannon. “Maintenance and Care.” Places Journal, no. 2018 (November 20, 2018). https://doi.org/10.22269/181120.

Morton, Timothy. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2013.

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci. Rizzoli, 1980.

Russell, Andrew, and Lee Vinsel. “Hail the Maintainers.” Aeon. Aeon, April 7, 2016. https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more.

Sample, Hilary. Maintenance Architecture. The MIT Press EBooks. The MIT Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9316.001.0001.

Across Amazonia, ancient sites have been discovered whose dark soils demonstrate exceptional fertility. Locally known as terra preta, these sites originate as far back as 2500 BC and exist in stark contrast to common weathered latosols of the tropics. Riddled with bones, ceramic shards, and lithic fragments, these soils are no result of natural phenomena, but rather the formative by-product of ecologically-integrated societies. Attuned to the cycles of decomposition, indigenous societies had developed complex forms of semi-domesticated agroforestry that reworked vegetal and animal refuse back into the earth. Their soil was not merely a forum for extraction, but rather a terrestrial legacy that was actively cultivated. At the heart of this relationship is the employment of pyrolysis, a form of anaerobic ‘fire’ that thermally decomposes organic matter into stable forms of carbon that persist in the soil for millenia . Edifical Dark Earth is the architectural translation of terra preta. Imbued within ceramics, biogenic carbon builds upon a rich legacy of earthen structures to create a novel hybrid of ancient materials. These carbonaceous structures utilise carbon’s microscopic properties to absorb atmospheric pollution, filter contaminated water, and increase soil fertility. Carbon becomes an architectural material, whose intricate porosities reflect an intra-scalar approach to space making. Not only does this represent a durable, scalable method of carbon sequestration, it also harnesses the intrinsic properties of biological matter into ecologically active buildings. Perhaps most significantly, these materials can be inoculated and therefore, microbially active. Their interconnected porosities enable water retention and efficient nutrient adsorption, allowing bacteria, mycorhizzal funghi, and other microorganisms to flourish deep within them. Architecture becomes substrate, where microbial inoculations can even be tailored towards medical or agricultural receptions (i.e. using nitrogen-fixing diazotrophs to reinforce soil fertility in agrarian contexts). Inert materials suddenly become mediums of fecundity, upheaving traditional conceptions of the city as a place of non-nature. These architectures are not only made of biological matter, they cultivate living ecologies within architectural terroirs that resituate humans into multispecies urbanities.

References:

Bezerra, Joana. The Brazilian Amazon: Politics, Science and International Relations In the History of the Forest. Springer, 2015.

Glaser, B, and William I Woods. Amazonian Dark Earths: Explorations In Space and Time. Springer, 2004.

Keefe, Laurence. Earth Building: Methods and Materials, Repair and Conservation. Taylor & Francis, 2005.

Lehmann, Johannes et al., Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin Properties Management. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.

Lehmann, Johannes; Gaunt, John; and Rondon, Marco. Bio-Char Sequestration In Terrestrial Ecosystems - A Review. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. Springer, 2006.

Lehmann, Johannes; Joseph, Stephen. Biochar for Environmental Management. Earthscan, 2009

Schmidt, Hans-Peter, and Taylor, Paul. “Kon-Tiki - The Democratization of Biochar Production.” The Biochar Journal. November 29, 2014. www.biochar-journal.org/en/ct/39

Schmidt, Hans-Peter, and Wilson, Kelpie. “The 55 Uses of Biochar.” The Biochar Journal. May 12, 2014. https://www.biochar-journal.org/en/ct/2

Woods, Williams et al., Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek’s Vision. Springer, 2008.

Image References:

Microscopy in collaboration with Julian Rodriguez Jirau