Material Regeneration: Towards Non-extractive Tectonics

Catalog description

The current energy crisis and climate change have impelled architects to challenge many standing assumptions in material culture and rethink the relationship between materials, the environment, construction methods, and labor. To address the urgent need for climate protection, architects should scrutinize the enduring material system and practices and seek simple, adaptive, and constructive solutions that enable ongoing change. The seminar course examines existing material supply chains through archival research, and mapping material sourcing and flows to explore alternative approaches to material transparency and circular methods. Students will also develop design-research and physical prototypes through reusing building components and designing for disassembly using carbon-neutral, regenerative, and waste materials. This bottom-up and hands-on approach encourages students to create ethical and ecological design criteria while experimenting with innovative construction methods and tectonics.