Syntopic Architectures - Matters of Activity

Left: The Bark Sphere, Charlett Wenig with Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten I MPI-CI and Alexander Magerl, 2021
Middle: The Bark Project Flexibilized, Charlett Wenig with Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten I MPI-CI and Patrick Walter
Right: Charles Eisen’s allegorical engraving of the first hut (= Vitruvian hut). Frontispiece in: Marc Antoine Laugier, Essai sur l’architecture, Paris: Chez Duchesne […], 2. edition, 1755. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Rar 1254, https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-128 / Public Domain Mark

»Syntopic Architectures« engages in structures for habitation, sourced from and embedded in the material cycles of a specific environment. The term ›syntopic‹ (noun: syntopy) has been coined by Luis Rene Rivas in 1964 and denotes the inhabitation of the same »macrohabitat« by »two or more related species«. It is a composition of the Greek words ›syn‹ meaning together and topos meaning place. To develop »Syntopic Architectures« thus means to create inhabitable structures with the place where they are built in.

The research strand will approach this aim by integrating different disciplinary perspectives, connecting design, materials science as well as cultural history and theory. Bringing together research from Adaptive Fibrous Materials, Tessellated Materials Systems and Active Trees – Knowledge Technologies Futures into a coherent research strand allows us to investigate the genealogies of architectural material systems, use site-specific biogenic materials and embed them into the very same local ecosystem. Making full-scale architectural prototypes, we learn about relevant material properties and how natural systems respond to environmental changes. Thinking through the non-sustainable legacies of the materials we are addressing – on anthropological, ecological and phylogenetic scales – provides a productive framework to strive for waste-less material networks. We thus question diverse functions emerging from living or non-living material systems and speculate about novel forms with multiple emerging functionalities and meanings.

In cooperation with

Active Trees

Adaptive Fibrous Materials

Paludicultures

Projects

Syntopia 0—Anthropos I Human

»Syntopia 0—Anthropos I Human« is a critical architectural response to anthropogenic mass surpassing living biomass around the year 2020 more

Syntopia 1—Soma I Body

»Syntopia 1—Soma I Body« is an exploration of the formation of space by the human body. Using a hand-based augmented reality (AR) framework a filament-structure is spun by hand which gradually envelopes its maker. more

Doctoral Projects

Building with Insect-damaged Timber

Spruce forests in Europe face significant challenges from increasing bark beetle attacks, partly attributed to droughts and extreme weather conditions.Drawing from field research conducted in Feldbuch, Germany, this project analyses factors that lead to bark beetle outbreaks and their impact on the trees, local forests, and communities. more

»Symbiotic Futures« Workshop Series

Symbiotic Futures 1.0

Modern life is mainly built on concrete, glass, and steel. However, these construction materials have been increasingly discussed due to their impact on emissions, waste production, and the climate crisis. In response to this, designers, architects, and other scholars investigate novel approaches to biomaterials, recycling options, and circular models of fabrication and construction. The aim is to form symbiotic alliances with fungi, beetle-infested trees, bacteria, or residual materials and acknowledge the surprising potential of these unconventional collaborators. more

Members