The EU-funded ECO-METABOLISTIC-ARC project aims to overcome the challenges that discourage the architecture sector’s transition to bio-based materials.

This interdisciplinary project asks how we can rethink sustainable building practices through a bio-based material paradigm in response to the increasing global crisis of material depletion. Despite well-organised calls for action maturing into legislation and an attentive profession, architecture is proving reticent in this transition. Bio-based materials are fundamentally different to current building materials being characterised by their complex heterogeneity, unpredictable behaviours and limited lifespans.

This project identifies that the key impediments to this transition lie with architecture’s inability to represent, conceptualise and operationalise bio-based materials. It argues that to design with bio-based materials we must challenge the fundamental value proposition of architecture and expand our conception of material lifespan to find new practices of construction. It proposes a holistic eco-metabolistic framework, that allows for carbon-neutral, renewable and materially optimised design solutions.

Start date: November 2021 - End date: October 2026

Partners

• DET KONGELIGE DANSKE KUNSTAKADEMIS SKOLER FOR ARKITEKTUR, DESIGN OG KONSERVERING.

More information here.