New Material Languages

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.

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