New York-based The Living, which describes itself as a first-of-its-kind Autodesk studio, says it is combining “research and practice, exploring new ideas and technologies through prototyping.”
The studio’s work embraces the complexity at the intersection of ideas, technologies, materials, culture, humans, non-humans, and the environment. Focusing on the intersection of biology, computation, and sustainability, the studio has articulated three frameworks for harnessing living organisms for architecture: bio-computing, bio-sensing, and bio-manufacturing. The studio welcomes rapid change, embraces design with uncertainty, develops rules rather than forms, and designs with unknowable forces.
Archinet reports:
“In a recent news release from the studio, the team shares their new collaborative project with Princeton University. “The Embodied Computation Lab is a building that includes new sustainability and low-carbon features, and the facade involves the use of custom algorithms trained to detect knots in wood—bringing the power of machine learning to the physical world.”
The Living team includes: David Benjamin (founder and principal), John Locke, Damon Lau, Dale Zhao, Jim Stoddart, Ray Wang, Lorenzo Villaggi, and Lindsey Wikstrom.
Besides the Princeton project, The Living describes its work on the MaRS project in Toronto, and a variety of artistic installations around the world,
“With technology rapidly changing the way architects, designers, and construction teams work together, The Living has initiated a new way for construction and computation to be understood and explored,” Archinet reports.
