Abstracts

On Limits and Passages: A Philosophical Perspective on Synergies in Architectural Research
Chris Younès

This article examines the role of synergies in architectural research through a philosophical reflection on limits, passages, and transdisciplinary forms of knowledge. Moving beyond disciplinary specialization, it argues for modes of inquiry that foster exchanges between diverse fields, practices, and ways of thinking. Drawing on the work of Edgar Morin, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Michel Serres, Hans Jonas, Félix Guattari, Val Plumwood, and Hélène Frichot, the text reconsiders boundaries not as fixed divisions but as sites of encounter, transformation, and invention. In the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, globalization, social and technical transformations, architectural research is called upon to establish new connections between academia, practice, education, experimentation, and culture. Particular attention is given to the relationships between humans and non-humans, nature and artifacts, ecosystems and anthropization, as well as rationality, sensibility, and empathy. The article argues that the challenge for architectural research lies in imagining, inventing, and experimenting with new scientific perspectives, alliances, and dialogues through emerging fields of inquiry and cognitive and creative methods.

Keywords: Architectural research, synergies, transdisciplinarity, limits and passages, complexity, human–non-human relations.

Finding Coherence: Collaborative Design for Community, Culture, and Environment
Olga Mesa, Nathan Fash

Collaboration can inspire us and open our minds to new ideas while simultaneously connecting us. It can bring not only enhanced expertise but also an intangible synergy that arises when multiple perspectives, experiences, and contextual forces interact, align, conflict, and eventually find cohesion through design. Drawing from three projects at the non-profit design office of Nuvola Studio, this article illustrates how contextually sensitive solutions can emerge through transdisciplinary collaboration. The “Aguatera” project supports sustainable water management for remote island communities of Bahía Málaga, Colombia. “Gemela” combines digital manufacturing technology, material science, and cultural heritage conservation to produce stone-composite replicas of the Maya Hieroglyphic Stairway of Copan, Honduras. “Woven Compliant Chuspata” brings together architects, engineers, and artisan weavers to develop sustainable woven components at an architectural scale. Across the three projects, collaboration engages collective wisdom, community, and technology to find solutions with meaningful social, cultural, and environmental impact.

Keywords: transdisciplinary collaboration, material innovation, collective wisdom, community engagement, digital fabrication, cultural heritage, sustainable design.

“The Controlled Ruin:” On Preserving Collective Memories through Building Transformation
Mo Michelsen Stochholm Krag

This photo series presents “The Controlled Ruin,” a project that emerged from design-based doctoral research and initiated an ongoing practice of radical preservation in rural Denmark. Through subtractive architectural interventions in abandoned buildings, the project explores how built remnants contribute to local identity and collective memory. The first prototype, implemented in 2014 in the village of Snedsted in northern Jutland, involved partially deconstructing a vacant single-family house to leave a curated constellation of architectural fragments that expose multiple temporal layers of the building’s lifespan. Since then, the project has expanded to include re-wilding strategies, where afforestation is gradually transforming the now empty historical part of the village, while the preserved ruins maintain open clearings that will serve as future cultural gathering places for the local community. “The Controlled Ruin” illustrates how architectural remains can stimulate local discourse on privacy, visibility, and communal memory.

Keywords: Radical preservation, collective memory, architectural remains, rewilding strategies, design-based research

How To Create Synergies? Discussing the Future of Architectural Research
Sophia Meeres, Urs Hirschberg

This article reflects on the discussions of the ARENA Synergies Symposium 2024 at Graz University of Technology and examines current challenges and future directions in architectural research. It focuses on the question of what makes good research, as well as on the implications of societal and environmental transformations, and the growing importance of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. Contributions from the symposium participants reveal tensions between established evaluation frameworks and experimental, practice-based, and design-driven research approaches. At the same time, the discussions emphasize the relevance of collaboration between academia, professional practice, and the public. Particular attention is given to the climate and environmental crisis, emerging forms of knowledge production, and the need to transcend disciplinary boundaries. The symposium highlights that contemporary architectural research should not only strive for scientific excellence, but it should also encourage critical reflection and innovative modes of collaboration. In this context, synergies form a key prerequisite for addressing complex challenges and shaping the future of architectural research.

Keywords: Architectural research, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, research collaboration, knowledge production

Hydrogels: Material Behavior and Spatial Transformation
Saurabh A. Mhatre

This photo series documents a research journey from observing molecular interactions to exploring material systems with architectural potential. Originating in the “Construction Lab” course at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and later developed as a thesis project, the work presents an investigation into how matter responds to time, energy, and environmental change. Through macro photography and high-speed imaging, experiments with water, oil, and ink revealed dynamic processes such as dispersion, absorption, and transformation. The research subsequently focused on hydrogels, materials capable of swelling and releasing moisture in response to external stimuli. Rather than examining isolated material properties, the project explored how behavior emerges through relationships between materials and their environments. This inquiry led to the development of systems with spatial and architectural implications, including optical layers, pressure-responsive membranes, and evaporative cooling grids. The photo series proposes an understanding of design not as the production of fixed forms, but as the orchestration of interactions between scale and behavior, substance and space.

Keywords: Responsive environments, architectural experimentation, material agency, matter—environment interaction, design research

Synergistic Materials: Rethinking Building Practice through Collaborative Material Research
Milena Stavrić, Hana Vašatko, Kristijan Ristoski, Cornelia Ott, Britta Nader, Julian Jauk, Lukas Gosch, Markus Bartaky, Urs Hirschberg

“Advanced Computational Design,” a research project initiated in 2020, investigates how design tools and processes can be advanced through interdisciplinary research in digital architecture, integrated building design, computer graphics and virtual reality, discrete and applied geometry and computational mechanics. Within this framework, a team of architects at Graz University of Technology contributes with the subproject “Material- and Structurally Informed Freeform Structures,” where sustainable building materials are reimagined through collaboration across architecture, materials science, geosciences and microbiology. By combining digital fabrication with material experimentation, bio-based composites such as alginate- and mycelium-based clay composites are developed that challenge conventional building materials. Through this approach, design, fabrication and integration of materials in architecture are rethought, opening new perspectives on ecological responsibility and building culture.

Keywords: interdisciplinary research, material experimentation, bio-based composites, sustainable building materials

Architecture as a Living System: Designing Synergies Between Humans, Machines, and Microorganisms
Daniela Mitterberger

Based on Karen Barad’s concept of intra-action, this article examines architecture not as a static object but as an interconnected living system co-composed by humans, machines, and microorganisms. Prototypes and frameworks are used to choreograph the relationships between humans, microbes, and machines, defining an atmospheric and performative space. The design method is illustrated through two prototypical architectures, created and evaluated through a practice of engagement. “Degrees of Life” facilitates non-verbal communication between humans and microbes by integrating eye tracking, multimodal sensors, and actuators with microbial ecosystems. The architecture of “Degrees of Life” grows and changes color in response to human activity. The project “Dafne’s Skin” features a canopy of hand-split shingles coated with living microbial paint, which is cared for by cable robots known as ‘geographers.’ The geographers observe people, microbes and the environment, and control sprinklers and lighting to either promote or suppress bacterial growth. Together, the projects demonstrate how atmospheric and performative design intentions can be translated into architectural production, and outline an interdisciplinary agenda for architecture as relational, adaptive and alive.

Keywords: Intra-action, living architecture, human–machine–microbe systems, adaptive environments, multispecies design, responsive architecture.

“Synergy Is Our Core Business”
Fabian Scheurer in Conversation with Urs Hirschberg (GAM)

Fabian Scheurer studied computer science and architecture at the Technical University of Munich and has since focused his work on the digitalization of building, especially computer-driven prefabrication. In 2007, he and Arnold Walz founded the company Design-to-Production. Based in Erlenbach (near Zurich) and in Stuttgart, the company has already facilitated over fifty groundbreaking projects, often collaborating with renowned architects and archi¬tectural firms like SANAA, UNStudio, Zaha Hadid, Shigeru Ban, and Renzo Piano. In addition to his prac¬tice-based work, Fabian Scheurer has taught at many different architecture schools. In this interview, he discusses the role of collaboration in the digital transformation of architecture and construction. He emphasizes that successful innovation depends less on technology itself than on the ability to organize interdisciplinary cooperation and translate complex design intentions into producible systems.

Keywords: Digital transformation, parametric design, digital fabrication, interdisciplinary collaboration, digital mass customization, prefabrication, computational design, construction innovation.

Seeing the Trees for the Forest: Visualizing Ireland’s Canopies
Sophia Meeres, Jay Gilbert, Ted Wilson

This article presents “Tree Map Ireland,” an interdisciplinary research and mapping project aimed at documenting trees growing outside forests in Ireland. The project addresses a significant knowledge gap in Ireland’s national forest inventories, which record forests but overlook the ecological and cultural contributions of individual trees, hedgerows, and smaller woodlands. By integrating high-resolution remote sensing data, existing geospatial datasets, and the Bluesky National Tree Map (NTM), the project provides a first visualization of Ireland’s c. 100 million individual trees in terms of canopy, encompassing both forest and non-forest trees. Freely available to the public, this awareness-raising project and interactive maps promote an important new baseline for assessing ecosystem services, supporting sustainable planning strategies, and monitoring national tree resources over time. “Tree Map Ireland” combines scientific analysis with public accessibility, understanding trees as an interconnected ecological infrastructure and aiming to contribute to the future long-term management of Ireland’s trees as a holistic resource.

Keywords: interdisciplinary research, trees outside forests, canopy cover, geospatial data, ecosystem services, mapping project, environmental advocacy

Designing for Insects: Multispecies Perspectives to Experimental Architectural Practice and Learning
Asya Ilgün, Svenja Keune

This article examines the roles architecture can play in interdisciplinary, co-creative research environments that foreground neglected dimensions of design, including living materials and nonhuman agencies such as insects. It situates contemporary biohybrid and more-than-human architecture within debates on vibrant matter and ecological relationality, and presents design experiments that integrate insects into material systems, digital fabrication processes, and everyday domestic settings. Through case studies including a mycelial beehive, domestic co-living with bioreceptive textiles, and the I.N.S.E.C.T. Summercamps, research camps co-organised by the authors, the article outlines alternative learning environments and research-by-design methods that cultivate ecological awareness, emphasize care and maintenance, and reframe architectural agency as shared across species. These experimental modes of practice foreground architecture not only as form-making, but as mediation—attentive to how environments are experienced by humans and nonhumans, and responsive to ecological, material, and social subtleties, while embracing complexity over control. In doing so, the article points toward futures in which architects act as facilitators of ecological and social processes rather than sole authors of built form.

Keywords: Architectural thinking, artistic research, more-than-human perspectives, multispecies design, interdisciplinary research, living materials

Cyber-Physical Architecture: A Transdisciplinary Practice
Yinan Liu, Charlotta Windahl, Uwe Rieger

This article reflects on the transdisciplinary work at the arc/sec Lab for Cyber-Physical Architecture and Interactive Systems at the University of Auckland. The lab investigates the evolving role of architecture as a mediator of real-time interaction between human behavior and intelligent environments. Drawing on three projects from the lab, “XRTEM,” “LightSense,” and “Spatial Improvisation 1.0,” this contribution shows how cyber-physical design enables scientists, architects, engineers, artists, social scientists, and business researchers to discover new forms of knowledge that emerge from their intersections. We develop large-scale immersive installations as full-scale prototypes that stage and test new environments, allowing real-time observation, rapid iteration, and shared decision-making in situ. In this context, architecture is reframed as a host that shapes collaboration in hybrid physical, digital, and social environments. Across these projects, co-presence, iterative making, and collective responsibility emerge as principles through which transdisciplinary synergy unfolds. They demonstrate how architecture can contribute to, and be transformed by, working across domains, and offer reflections on the synergy needed to address the complexity of contemporary challenges.

Keywords: transdisciplinary collaboration, cyber-physical architecture, interactive systems, intelligent environments, immersive installations, real-time interaction.

Future Cities, Direct Democracy, and Serving Coffee at the Weekly Market
Gerhard Schmitt in Conversation with Urs Hirschberg (GAM)

Gerhard Schmitt is professor emeritus of Information Architecture at ETH Zurich, and founding director of the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC). His research focuses on urban metabolism and cities as complex systems, and the intersection of big data and urban plan¬ning, urban models, simulation, and visualization. He joined the fac¬ulty of ETH Zurich in 1988, where he founded the Chair for Architecture and CAAD. From 1998 to 2008, Schmitt served as Vice Presi¬dent for Planning and Logistics and a member of the executive board at ETH Zurich. Working in collaboration with 16 academic departments, he oversaw the development of ETH’s strategy and planning. In this role, he initiated and developed the sustainable ETH Science City Campus in Zurich, for which he received the European Culture of Science Award in 2010. In this interview, Schmitt reflects on his career at ETH Zurich and at the Singapore-ETH Centre, and discusses the role of architecture in interdisciplinary research and urban development.

Keywords: Future cities, urban development, transdisciplinary research, design science, citizen participation, citizen design.