David Benjamin
Founding Principal of The Living and Associate Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
David Benjamin (‘05 M.Arch) is Founding Principal of The Living and Associate Professor at Columbia GSAPP. Focusing on the intersection of biology, computation, and design, Benjamin has articulated three frameworks for harnessing living organisms for architecture: bio-processing, bio-sensing, and bio-manufacturing.
The Living has won many design prizes, including the Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League, the New Practices Award from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, the Young Architects Program Award from the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, and a Holcim Sustainability Award. Recent projects include the Princeton Architecture Laboratory (a new building for research on next-generation design and construction technologies), Pier 35 EcoPark (a 200-foot-long floating pier in the East River that changes color according to water quality), and Hy-Fi (a branching tower for the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 made of a new type of biodegradable brick).
Judge’s selections
Bio-Renewal Prize
ZenZhou Water-Storing Seedling Pot
仁舟社會企業股份有限公司
This project engages a critical ecological problem with an ingenious design solution. It involves an elegant product and system, employs a light touch, and combines form and function in a compelling way. Equally appealing—and more radical—is how the project applies “design with time,” inviting change rather than resisting it, balancing the needs of today, one year from now, and ten years in the future—and thereby expanding the boundaries of what all good design might be. In addition, the project suggests a new and exciting hybrid nature, harnessing biological systems and extending them through human creativity. I would love to see this project maintain its community-based and participatory nature while also scaling up. I wonder if it could include partnerships with local landowners, government ministries, non-profits, and corporations. Perhaps it could bring together these entities with a common purpose and vision. The time in now!
Beneath the Surface Prize
Malai Biocomposite - a novel plant based and home compostable alternative to animal leather
malai biomaterials design pvt. ltd.
This project is a striking physical product and a powerful demonstration of transforming waste into a valuable resource. The innovative, plant-based material grown from bacteria and agricultural waste is functional, beautiful, and sustainable. It is a compelling combination of bio-design and bio-fabrication. Novel, bio-based materials are essential for the circular economy. This project engages local conditions and waste as well as a global community of bio-material exploration. Its partnership with coconut processing industry is an impressive model for other circular materials and products. I can’t wait to see this material scale up! I wonder if will have to adapt as it shifts to other regions of the world with other types of agricultural waste. I also wonder if the project could address good “circular jobs” and “green jobs” as it expands in production capacity. And I wonder if the performance of the material can be calibrated for additional applications, including building facades. I’m looking forward to following the progress!
Good Life Prize
INOW: Transformative Experiences To Return Back to Our Roots
INOW
This remarkable and quietly radical project gives us an optimistic view into a good life that is possible beyond our current wasteful practices and also beyond an incremental approach to improvements. Circularity is about a way of life as much as it is about technology or materials. INOW gives us a sense of the radical transformations needed to address the immensity of the climate change emergency. It also gives us a window into the wonderful and appealing results of changing the way we live. And it is a poignant reminder of “lost wisdom of the past” and the role that traditional, indigenous, and vernacular practices must play in a meaningful transition to a circular economy. I would love to see more details of the program, and to find out more about how visitors will take lessons from their experience back home with them to other locations where they live. I would also love to see how this project could scale up and create significant change through the multiplier effect of awareness—visitors will be changed themselves, and they will tell others, and those other will tell still more people. Circularity is about a way of life as much as it is about technology or materials. INOW gives us a sense of the radical transformations needed to address the immensity of the climate change emergency. It also gives us a window into the wonderful and appealing results of changing the way we live. I would love to see more details of the program, and to find out more about how visitors will take lessons from their experience back home with them to other locations where they live. I would also love to see how this project could scale up and create significant change through the multiplier effect of awareness—visitors will be changed themselves, and they will tell others, and those other will tell still more people.
Clean Green Prize
SOUJI (Reuse used oil, create your own ecological detergent, in just 1 minute)
Samsarapps s.l
This project is brilliant and deceptively simple. It is both low-tech and high impact. It combines systems of food, water, waste, and home living in an inspiring way. Perhaps most inspiring is how this project suggests that individual participation and experience is a critical element of circularity. As management of water and carbon become increasingly important in the climate emergency our world is facing, this project shines a light on how materials and waste affect ecosystems and resources long after they disappear from view. I wonder whether the adoption of this project—and the way of living it points to—could be fueled by grassroots empowerment. Could this product and technology be cooperatively-owned and open source? Could it lead to new business models as well as new social models? Could it offer an alternative to typical corporate marketing, development, and profit motives?
Re-Work Prize
Eco-Friendly and Profitable Auto Recycling System
Kaiho Industry Co., Ltd.
This project embodies the essential and beautiful idea that circularity and re-use are compatible with meaningful labor and good jobs. Operating at multiple scales, the project is both local and global. It engages a local community and way of life, as well as a global impact (1.3 billion cars in the world! More than 1 million used cars exported to developing countries every year!). And it offers a compelling new version of global connection based on reuse and recycling rather than extraction and consumption. It is very impressive to see the project demonstrating some of the technical details required to make circular approaches work, including international standards, cooperation between companies, and education and re-training. The project reminds me of the visionary work of Swiss architect Walter Stahel, who created the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” and who formulates the ideas behind the “circular economy.” Back in 1973, Stahel was looking for ways to save energy in the construction industry. And instead of looking at building technologies, Stahel turned to behavior patterns and socioeconomic issues. He proposed “substituting work hours for energy,” and he wrote, “The creation of new skilled jobs can be achieved in parallel with a reduction of energy consumption through prolonging the useful life of buildings.” The same is true for cars and other products! And although much has changed since 1973, the need to look simultaneously at energy and fulfilling employment is as relevant as ever. I would love to see this approach expanding to other industries and objects, such as buildings and mobile devices. And I would love to know more about possible connections between professional car repair and amateur repair cafes.