VDF studio profile: Epiphyte Lab is a Pittsburgh-based practice, which sees architecture as an inherent part of its surrounding ecology.
The studio's work is based on cross-disciplinary collaboration and "operates between design and science" in order to incorporate research directly into the fabric of its buildings.
Dana Cupkova, an associate professor at the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, founded the firm in 2009 alongside her late collaborator Kevin Pratt, with the aim of creating architecture that "acts like an epiphyte".
Lit Planes is a New York home with a light-reflective ceiling geometry
This refers to a type of plant that grows on other plants but does not feed on its nutrients like a parasite. Instead, it survives on the biological waste and surplus resources of the other plant while creating its own mini-ecosystem in the process. Similarly, Epiphyte Lab aims to design buildings that are responsive to the "resources and energy flows" of its environment.
By making use of generative design as well as computer simulations and analysis, the studio works to conserve "finite and precious" material resources while creating buildings that are optimised to consume energy in the most efficient way.
Hsu House features a sculptural concrete wall with a mass and surface that has been optimised to capture and transmit heat in the most efficient way
"Architecture is fundamentally a part of planetary ecology and thus has to o...