This event, part of the Academic Alliance between CCA & Autodesk Technology Center, brings together designers, researchers, and industry professionals to investigate the potential of biomaterials to reduce embodied carbon in building components. Many animal species have the capacity of forming hard shells, which rely on chemical and biological reactions that can serve as a model of how to avoid the intense heat energy required for industrial building materials like concrete and bricks. Cement-based concrete production is responsible for 8% of total Co2 emissions per year; meanwhile plankton, mollusks and birds are all capable of fabricating shells through the precipitation of calcium carbonate from their environment efficiently and without hazardous output. Utilizing these species as a source of inspiration, this research collaboration is focused on leveraging these biological processes to produce bio-mineralization in clay bodies. Students and faculty at CCA and UCSF will join industry partners at Autodesk and Building Swell to discuss their ongoing research and how opportunities might emerge for developing methods of extruded fabrication of architectural components based on the microscopic biological systems of shell building.

Presenters include: Margaret Ikeda, Associate Professor of Architecture and Architectural Ecologies Lab (AEL) co-director at CCA; Evan Jones, Adjunct Professor of Architecture and Architectural Ecologies Lab (AEL) co-director at CCA; Dr. Negar Kalantar, Associate Professor and Digital Craft Lab (DCL) co-director at CCA; Rick Rundell, Senior Director of the Autodesk Technology Centers; Dr. Dyche Mullins, Chair and Professor of UCSF Cellular Molecular Pharmacology and director of Mullins Lab; Jordan Easterling, Founder of Building Swell: A modern production platform and Autodesk Industry Resident; Arthur Harsuvanakit, Principal Research Scientist at Autodesk R&D group; Claire Leffler, CCA B.Arch student; Conrad Scheepers, CCA M.Arch student; Kimia Bam Farahnak, CCA MAAD student; Fredrick Leon, graduate student, Booth Lab at UCSF; and Elizabeth Martinez-Bond, Ph.D candidate (Tetrad), Williams Lab at UCSF.

A presentation of CCA Architecture and Autodesk Technology Centers’ Academic Alliance.