Sustainable Products and Materials

90-Minute Education Session

Emerging Professionals

FRI-B11 - Fundamental Materials, How They Weather, and Their Surrounding Cultures

1.50 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AIA/HSW, AICP, FL, NY/HSW, CMAA

Lead Speaker(s)

• 

  Alexandra Mei, Assoc. ASLA

  Landscape Designer
  Merritt Chase

Speaker(s)

• 

  William Baumgardner, Assoc. ASLA

  Landscape Designer
  STOSS Landscape Urbanism
• 

  Kotchakorn Voraakhom, ASLA

  CEO and Founder
  Landprocess

With case studies from Bangladesh, Thailand, and Japan, this session critically examines how projects have incorporated fundamental materials such as wood, mud, bamboo, and rammed earth into their design and construction, and have used their material characteristics to benefit the project’s life span in both urban and rural communities.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the characteristics and abilities of the following fundamental materials: mud, bamboo, rammed earth, and wood.
• See examples of how these materials are uniquely applied in projects in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Japan.
• Learn how these materials weather with different local, and at times extreme, climates, dense populations, and in urban and rural contexts.
• Engage in a discussion on the use of these fundamental materials and how the presented work demonstrates a design dialogue with surrounding cultures.