Building with nature’s help

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Can lava from volcanoes be transformed into house walls? And can we use fungi to clean areas in our cities from toxic waste? The answer to both questions is yes – at least at some point in the future. These are just a few of the innovative ideas coming from the growing number of architects looking for alternative ways to build and design our cities – for the sake of both people and the planet.

In this episode, we examine some of the solutions offered by new types of architecture in the fight against climate change and look at how they can help bring nature back into our cities.

This episode comes from a Nordic Talks event held in Reykjavik during the yearly DesignTalks, arranged by Iceland Design and Architecture.

This podcast episode features the following speakers

Sigrún Thorlacius (Iceland)

Sigrún Thorlacius is a product designer and biologist dedicated to the wellbeing of human society, all-natural communities, and the health of the Earth. She is deeply interested in the ideology of slow design, biomimicry methods, and enhancing local production. In particular, Sigrún has worked on cultivating select species of fungi in contaminated areas to transform toxic land into sustainable ecosystems.

Arnhildur Pálmadóttir (Iceland)

Arnhildur Pálmadóttir is the founder of s. ap arkitektar, an architectural studio operating at the intersection of design, technology, and science. While the firm takes on traditional architecture and design projects, it also undertakes experimental research that challenges existing systems. They focus on exploring future technologies to develop innovative construction methods and to mitigate the industry's impact on climate change.

Peter Veenstra (Netherlands)

Peter Veenstra is a landscape architect and cofounder of LOLA Landscape Architects. LOLA, which is based in Rotterdam and Shenzhen, has completed substantial projects like the Adidas HQ Campus. As a recipient of the Rotterdam Maaskant Prize for Young Architects in 2013 and the TOPOS landscape award in 2014, Peter has actively contributed to innovative landscape architecture research, focusing on climate adaptation and sustainable environmental solutions.