Named design project of the year at Dezeen Awards 2019, Aguahoja I by Mediated Matter Group at MIT shows how materials derived from living organisms could be used in architecture, according to the jury.
Mediated Matter Group, which is part of MIT Media Lab and headed by Neri Oxman, digitally designed and robotically fabricated the structure using materials derived from apples, trees, insect exoskeletons and bones.
The project involved robotically printing a five-metre-tall pavilion out of a biocomposite made of pectin, cellulose, chitosan (a material derived from chitin) and calcium carbonate.
Aguahoja I by Mediated Matter Group has been named design project of the year
The judges were impressed by the way the project demonstrated how organic, biodegradable materials could be combined to create objects on an architectural scale. "The material itself is a living material," said Dezeen Awards judge Nelly Ben Hayoun. "It sweats, it grows, it expands, it smells, so it's coming with all of these new attributes that you would not find in a piece of design that would usually be glossy or shiny."
Aguahoja is a robotically fabricated structure
According to Hayoun, the project ignited intense discussion between the design master jury, which also included Philippe Starck, Yinka Ilori, Front's Sofia Lagerkvist, Aric Chen and Atelier NL's Lonny van Ryswyck.
"It kind of challenged all of the members of the jury in what we consider being a piece of design," s...