Experimental Disobedience and Loose Collaborations: Unconventional material explorations that challenge existing architectural norms.

Human impact on the planet is often studied as separate environmental issues even though these anthropogenic activities are often deeply connected. By promoting experimental, project-specific partnerships and ‘loose collaborations’ between multi-disciplinary stakeholders, architectural research can address the complex interconnected challenges that the built environment imposes on planetary systems. By questioning something as fundamental as materials – and the steadfast imbalance caused by conventional construction – we can question social, cultural, economic, and environmental phenomena. This opens access to deeper leverage points for systems change. Properties of unconventional bio-based materials, typically seen as limitations, in fact present opportunities to question existing norms. This paper presents exploratory research and a pedagogical approach which uses an experimental, hands-on methodology to test the viability of unconventional bio-based materials. In-turn this creates a highly tangible focus point for interdisciplinary collaboration. The approach shows that universities hold unrealised potential to become incubators of alternative architectural trajectories. They can do so by bringing together like-minded academics and students and allowing for the cross over between disciplines and knowledge sharing. By deliberately transgressing established regulations and systems of power within architecture, we seek to shift design approaches to integrate a deeper understanding of place and its complex systems.