Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications

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    Design Workflows for a Prosthetic-Hollow Configurator
    Parker, D ; Roudavski, S (Viafarini (a non-profit organisation that promotes art and design; shared studio and exhibition space for artists and curators) Open Studio, 2022)
    This project uses innovative interactive technologies to specify and make prosthetic habitats for tree-dwelling animals. Community participation is important in implementing ecological initiatives, monitoring their efficacy, and encouraging interspecies solidarity. Existing designs, such as nest boxes, can be functional and easy to make. However, conventional manufacturing can lead to geometric and material limitations which constrain deployment, utilisation, and long-term use. Alternative approaches, such as computationally designed hollows, provide novel design opportunities but are often not feasible in community-led projects. In response to the need for advanced designs that are easy to build, this project explores a variety of materials, forms, and techniques to show that a combination of digital fabrication and do-it-yourself/do-it-together manufacturing can improve and democratise the design of prosthetic hollows. As a case study, this project refers to the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus). Ecologists expect that climate change will reduce its habitat by 65% in 20 years. In response, Deep Design Lab collaborates with ecologists at MUSE Science Museum of Trento to develop shapes and materials that are sustainable, feasible to construct, and supportive of owls as well as other organisms. The material tests include soil, hempcrete, and mycelium, salvaged wood, laser-cut cardboard, and 3D printed wood. This testing contributes to ongoing research projects that build and monitor nest prototypes including an installation in the Parco Naturale Paneveggio Pale di San Martino Trentino. This project supports the implementation of prosthetic hollows within local communities and produces novel, reusable knowledge that will be applicable to other sites and species as demonstrated by the industrial partners’ interest in this approach.
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    Biomaterials for Replacement Habitats
    Parker, D ; Roudavski, S (OME, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle University and Connected Everything II Festival, 2022)
    This project explores how novel biomaterials and construction techniques can support biodiversity. Our approach is to study this theme in a prototype installation that aims to support coexistence between insects, micro-organisms, and humans. There is an urgent need for such interventions in response to the loss of habitat structures and resulting reduction of biodiversity. The installation completed in an interdisciplinary collaborative setting uses 3D printed clay, living mycelium (a new construction material that uses fungi roots) and hand-crafted textiles. Ongoing monitoring using live-feed microclimate sensors, frequent observations, and microbial samples provides insights into the installation’s suitability for local wildlife. This research contributes to the development of sustainable designs that can alleviate damages from habitat destruction without producing waste or introducing new harms.
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    Bio-Digital Manufacturing of Tree Hollows
    Roudavski, S ; Parker, D (MUSE – Science Museum of Trento, 2022)
    This living-laboratory exhibit tests the use of experimental materials for artificial tree-hollows. Globally, thousands of bird and mammal species depend on tree hollows for shelter and reproduction. Most of these animals cannot build their own homes. Instead, they rely on cavities made by woodpeckers, termites, or decay-causing organisms. These critical habitat-structures are in short supply and take decades or even centuries to develop. Human-made or ‘artificial’ hollows, such as nest boxes, can support some species. However, the shapes, materials, microbial life, and microclimates of nest boxes significantly differ from natural hollows. Timber boxes often break after a few years while plastic structures last longer but produce persistent waste. Extreme temperature fluctuations inside nest boxes can dehydrate and overheat inhabitants. Developing sustainable designs that perform as components of ecosystems is a difficult challenge that necessitates better understandings of hollows across their entire lifecycles. In response, ecologists from MUSE and collaborators from Deep Design Lab at the University of Melbourne are working together to develop and test artificial hollows made of novel materials. Using MUSE’s digital fabrication lab, FabLab, the researchers are manufacturing high-tech hollows using tools like laser-cutting, 3D printing, and augmented-reality assembly guides on smartphones. The aim is to develop shapes, materials, and manufacturing approaches that are sustainable, feasible to construct, and supportive of target species and other organisms. This exhibit is evaluating the performances of digitally designed hollows made from soil, hempcrete, mycelium, plywood, and plastic. The design of each hollow specifically targets the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus), a cold-adapted species that resides in the spruce and fir forests of Europe and North America. Sadly, boreal owls could lose 65% of their habitat in the Italian Alps by 2050 due to climate change. In 2018, Storm Vaia toppled many of the hollow-bearing trees that boreal owls rely on for nesting. To understand how digitally designed hollows compare to the usual nesting sites of boreal owls, this living-laboratory experiment includes a tree hollow salvaged after the storm. Sensors within each hollow record the internal microclimates. Feedback from this experiment will inform the development of artificial hollows to be installed in the forests of Trentino. This project shows what is possible when international and interdisciplinary teams come together to address complex challenges and sets out to benefit ecosystems at diverse sites and scales.