What if the complex adaptive behaviour of biological systems could be translated to ecological materiality?
How would the unique temporality of these materials be deployed, not as definitive decay, but as a process of regeneration, reintegration in the cycle?
-
So far, my research’s main goal was to explore the principal factors affecting the biological and material properties of mycelium materials and to broaden the potential of new fabrication technologies for architectural applications using fungal organisms.
-
I supervised master students and bachelor students for their thesis, in architectural engineering, civic engineering, industrial engineering (electro-mechanics), chemistry and bio-engineering, on several impactful topics related to mycelium materials.
-
Since the start of my PhD, I have been able to publish my work in multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journals with high impact. These 8 journal papers resulted in over +110 citations to date (Scopus data). I also presented my work in conference papers and other events.
Exploring interrelationships.
During my explorations, I learned to embrace the complexity, the unknown, the mysterious behaviour of living organisms. To consider the opportunities and challenges of all those fields coming together I had to face the non-linear and dynamic nature of the research. Along the way, by taking the first steps towards the disentanglement of all factors affecting mycelium materials, I used and developed an experimental approach. In challenging well-established linear boundaries such as dichotomies statements, I saw that many explanations and strategies exist for the same problem. Especially, when analysing other research on mycelium materials, it became clear that single processes and controlled outcomes do nearly not exist.
Reflective responses to new material paradigms.
As I evolved towards a state without any precedent, I tried to integrate agents in the work that weren’t considered previously, such as randomness, external influence, decay, to enable reflective responses to new material paradigms. If we are about to move into a new model of material production in cooperation with living matter, doesn’t this mean new decision-making models that integrate the generative nature are about to emerge, and if so how would they look like? If building materials become living things, wouldn’t we have to reconsider the existing design strategies?
Radically rethink materiality.
I propose to articulate a vision from the perspective of living materiality, which can produce new trajectories in the way we build with the living. By engaging affinities and entanglements with multiple disciplines and scales, we might discover the sophisticated capacities of bio-hybrid matter to eliminate future technofossils. As much as I hope my work leads to the acceleration of the debate about how to radically rethink materiality, we will anyway get the earth we deserve.