Tucked onto a slender parcel surrounded by a large arena, an athletic field, and a hulking four-story chemistry building, the Princeton School of Architecture’s new 8,500-square-foot Embodied Computation Lab is easy to miss. More, its modest shedlike form and rustic wood facade belie its function as a state-of-the-art classroom and workshop for research into advanced building technology including automated construction, feedback systems, energy harnessing, and new wall and roof assemblies. Its most remarkable features are subtle if not invisible. The result of a rigorous design process and insatiable drive to innovate, the lab is the first ground-up building designed by David Benjamin, founder of the New York–based research studio The Living.
Established in 2011 and acquired by software giant Autodesk in 2014, the group’s name suggests the area of exploration central to its work: the intersection of biology with computation and design. Projects have ranged from producing organic bricks from a mixture of agricultural waste and mycelium for a 43-foot-high tower, for MoMA PS1’s 2014 Young Architects Program, to developing an algorithm based on the transformative qualities of slime mold to generate a high-performance prototype for the world’s largest metal 3-D-printed airplane component.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.