Material Shift

Guests

Summer Islam (Material Cultures, London), Corentin Dalon (Bento, Brussels), Emma van der Leest (Blue City Lab, Rotterdam)

Short summary

Summer Islam (Material Cultures, London), Corentin Dalon (Bento, Brussels) and Emma van der Leest (Blue City Lab, Rotterdam) on the labour, cost and aesthetical language of building with natural materials.

Introduction text

The second episode turns to bio-based and grown materials — mycelium, algae, bacterial cellulose — and to the gap between a beautiful prototype and something people can actually build with. Host Hülya Ertas speaks with Summer Islam, co-founder of Material Cultures in London; Corentin Dalon, co-founder of Bento in Brussels, who realised the Belgian Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale in raw earth and mycelium; and Emma van der Leest, founder of Blue City Lab in Rotterdam, who grows materials from bacteria, fungi and algae rather than extracting them.

The conversation moves from the physical toll that supposedly 'traditional' techniques such as stone masonry or reed thatching place on workers' bodies, to the debates around stabilising and industrialising earth construction, to the marketing problem of biomaterials that keep being compared to the animal- or oil-based products they are meant to replace: a mycelium 'leather', a seaweed-based 'linoleum'. Along the way: a student project in Benin that started from local earth rather than a floor plan, a jacket grown from bacterial cellulose that can never be washed, and a shared reading list running from Roland Barthes' Mythologies to David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything.

Material Shift

Season 1: New Aesthetics

#1: Designing with Nature
guest speakers: Nicky Vancaudenberg (AgwA), Karel Loontiens (Aardig Gedacht & Studio Loho) and Theresa Zschäbitz (Bauhaus Earth)

#2: New Material Languages
guest speakers: Summer Islam (Material Cultures), Corentin Dalon (Bento Architecture) and Emma van der Leest (Blue City Lab)

#3: Pioneering Practices - available from 15 December 2026
guest speakers: Lydia Kallipoliti (Columbia GSAPP), Julian Ramirez Araujo (Taller Material) and Diana Campbell (Samdani Art Foundation)

Colophon:

Host: Hülya Ertas
Language: English
Coordination: Hülya Ertas (VAi) and Farah Fervel (BC architects, studies and materials)
Production, recording and editing: Laurens Desmet, De Podcastmobiel
Project: ACCEL, Architects in Circular Construction Elevated Learning
With the support of: Erasmus+
In collaboration with: BC architects, studies and materials, Amàco (L'atelier matières à construire), the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), RWTH Aachen University and the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi).

Artwork: Ellen Bresseleers

Image credit: Paludi Malchin Summer School 2025, Malchin, explore the potential of wetland plants in regenerative construction, thatching Molinia & reed Photo by seeber.media - Florian Seeber

Season 2 expected in Spring 2027.

Stay in the loop and subscribe to the VAi-newsletter via the link. Read more on vai.be

Guests

Nicky Vancaudenberg (AgwA, Brussels), Karel Loontiens (Aardig Gedacht & Studio Loho, Bruges), Theresa Zschäbitz (Bauhaus Earth, Berlin)

Short summary

Architect Nicky Vancaudenberg (AgwA), contractor and designer Karel Loontiens (Aardig Gedacht & Studio Loho) and material researcher Theresa Zschäbitz (Bauhaus Earth) share first-hand stories on reuse, embodied energy and the importance of natural building materials, and what these mean for how architecture looks and feels.

Introduction

In this first episode, host Hülya Ertas (VAi) talks with Nicky Vancaudenberg, Karel Loontiens and Theresa Zschäbitz about what happens when architecture moves away from glossy, high-maintenance finishes toward materials that are reused, natural, or simply left exposed.

Vancaudenberg, partner at AgwA in Brussels — recently awarded the EU Mies Award for Chapex in Charleroi — describes how questioning a client's brief led the office to remove an entire building wing rather than replace it, and how that decision reshaped the way AgwA thinks about energy and construction. Loontiens, co-founder of Aardig Gedacht and Studio Loho, traces sixteen years of working with clay plasters and natural finishes, from a niche practice to something closer to a quality label. Zschäbitz, of the research institute Bauhaus Earth, brings in a project in Berlin that tests how much carbon a building can store in bio-based insulation, and recounts a telling mismatch between a traditional Belgian thatcher's instincts and a research team's ambition to build with local reed.

Material Shift

Season 1: New Aesthetics

#1: Designing with Nature

guest speakers: Nicky Vancaudenberg (AgwA), Karel Loontiens (Aardig Gedacht & Studio Loho) and Theresa Zschäbitz (Bauhaus Earth)

#2: New Material Languages - available from 10 November 2026

guest speakers: Summer Islam (Material Cultures), Corentin Dalon (Bento Architecture) and Emma van der Leest (Blue City Lab)

#3: Pioneering Practices - available from 15 December 2026

guest speakers: Lydia Kallipoliti (Columbia GSAPP), Julian Ramirez Araujo (Taller Material) and Diana Campbell (Samdani Art Foundation)

Colophon:

Host: Hülya Ertas

Language: English

Coordination: Hülya Ertas (VAi) and Farah Fervel (BC architects, studies and materials)

Production, recording and editing: Laurens Desmet, De Podcastmobiel

Project: ACCEL, Architects in Circular Construction Elevated Learning

With the support of: Erasmus+

In collaboration with: BC architects, studies and materials, Amàco (L'atelier matières à construire), the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), RWTH Aachen University and the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi).

Artwork: Ellen Bresseleers

Image credit: Paludi Malchin Summer School 2025, Malchin, explore the potential of wetland plants in regenerative construction, thatching Molinia & reed Photo by seeber.media - Florian Seeber

Season 2 expected in Spring 2027.

Stay in the loop and subscribe to the VAi-newsletter ⁠via the link⁠. Read more on ⁠vai.be⁠

Material Shift is a podcast series produced by the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi), in collaboration with BC architects, studies and materials.

Hosted by Hülya Ertas (VAi), the series brings architects, artists, contractors and researchers who work first-hand with circular, bio-based and earth materials to the microphone, to talk about what these materials mean for the future of construction — and for its aesthetic perception.

The first season, New Aesthetics, questions the material culture behind a building's look and feel: what happens when architecture moves away from glossy, energy-intensive finishes toward materials that are reused, natural or grown?

Two further seasons will follow, on knowledge and territories, and on policy, continuing to trace the shifts already underway in architectural thinking and practice.

The podcast is produced within the ACCEL (Architects in Circular Construction Elevated Learning) project supported by the Erasmus+ programme, in collaboration with BC architects, studies and materials, AMACO (L'atelier matières à construire), L’Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), RWTH Aachen University, and the Flanders Architecture Institute.

Material Shift

Season 1: New Aesthetics

#1: Designing with Nature - available from 13 October 2026
guest speakers: Nicky Vancaudenberg (AgwA), Karel Loontiens (Aardig Gedacht & Studio Loho) and Theresa Zschäbitz (Bauhaus Earth)

#2: New Material Languages - available from 10 November 2026
guest speakers: Summer Islam (Material Cultures), Corentin Dalon (Bento Architecture) and Emma van der Leest (Blue City Lab)

#3: Pioneering Practices - available from 15 December 2026
guest speakers: Lydia Kallipoliti (Columbia GSAPP), Julian Ramirez Araujo (Taller Material) and Diana Campbell (Samdani Art Foundation)

Colophon:

Host: Hülya Ertas
Language: English
Coordination: Hülya Ertas (VAi) and Farah Fervel (BC architects, studies and materials)
Production, recording and editing: Laurens Desmet, De Podcastmobiel
Project: ACCEL, Architects in Circular Construction Elevated Learning
With the support of: Erasmus+
In collaboration with: BC architects, studies and materials, Amàco (L'atelier matières à construire), the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), RWTH Aachen University and the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi).

Artwork: Ellen Bresseleers

Image credit: Paludi Malchin Summer School 2025, Malchin, explore the potential of wetland plants in regenerative construction, thatching Molinia & reed Photo by seeber.media - Florian Seeber

Season 2 expected in Spring 2027.

Stay in the loop and subscribe to the VAi-newsletter via the link. Read more on vai.be