Back to EventsConversation 8 / Bio-based buildings: the real forever homes
with Lara Pinho, Jessica Gibbs and Deepti Wetjen
Bio-based materials are the future of construction, bringing old and new technologies together to create the healthy buildings and homes we need. Hemp, mycelium, spinifex, guayule, seaweed, straw bale, and bamboo – all of these are being tested and trialled. Strong and resistant to fire, water and termites – why would you build with anything else?
In this conversation, three architects will share research and development underway to produce the next generation of bio-based materials, locally and at scale, alongside homes built from existing resources.
Lara Pinho is working with Typha, a fast-growing wetland plant and emerging bio-based building material already successfully used as a construction material in Europe.
Jess Gibbs will share her experiments with oyster shells as a readily available waste material that can be repurposed.
Deepti Wetjen will share the story of the straw bale house she and husband Christian constructed as a flexible and sustainable home for their growing family. Designed to see them through every stage of life, this is a real forever home.
Concession tickets available
Students and concession card holders can use the code FDWCONCESSION for 20% off tickets. For mob, use the code MOBTIX for a 50% discount.
Image: Hempcrete wall at Hale Street / Philip Stejskal Architecture / Acorn Photography
Lara Camilla Pinho
Lara Camilla Pinho a Lecturer in Architecture, UWA School of Design and an award-winning academic and architect. Her work is focused on the effect of architectural interventions on living systems and local ecology, and how the impact of the built environment on these systems often causes imbalance. Lara is interested in how architecture can provide a platform for cultivating relations of reciprocity between species.
Trained in Lisbon and Paris, and having lived in South Africa, Portugal, France and the Netherlands, Lara is co-founder of Lisbon-based blaanc borderless architecture and co-founded the non-profit humanitarian association Adobe for Women Association.
Lara currently lectures at UWA’s School of Design where she co-coordinates the Social Impact Design focus area in the Master of Architecture program. At UWA Lara is currently investigating the invasive growth of Typha domingensis in Perth linked to construction activity and its potential as a bio-material resource.
Jessica Gibbs
Jessica Gibbs is a designer and Master of Architecture graduate from the University of Western Australia, currently practising at GHD Design in Perth. Her work explores the relationship between architecture, materials and place, with a particular interest in how locally available resources can inform alternative approaches to design and construction.
Her independent design research, What Should the Future Be Made Of?, explored how locally sourced seaweeds and seafood industry by-products, such as oyster shells, could be repurposed as future building materials through simple, low-tech processes. Through a series of material experiments and prototypes, the project examined new ways of using local resources, reducing waste and creating materials that are connected to place.
Jessica is passionate about material experimentation, making and observation, exploring how architecture can contribute to more regenerative relationships between people, resources and the landscapes they inhabit.
Deepti Wetjen
Deepti Wetjen is a Passivhaus-certified architect and design manager whose work has been focused on medium- to large-scale, complex public architecture for over 20 years.
In 2011, Deepti and her husband Christian Wetjen designed and self-built their timber-framed straw bale passive solar house with a big brief of flexibility, energy efficiency, sustainability and comfort.
The home continues to evolve and adapt with their family needs. Over the years, they have also supported several owner-builders in designing and constructing their straw bale homes around WA. Deepti and Christian lecture and conduct hands-on straw bale workshops as part of UWA’s bio-based design studio.