About
D.DLAB

D.DLab is a design-led technological research group positioning architectural design as a driving force in addressing one of the most critical global challenges of our time, the climate crisis, within the context of the built environment. The architecture, engineering, and construction industries account for approximately 40% of global CO₂ emissions, 30% of global waste, and 50% of raw resource consumption. Beyond their material impact, these sectors also contribute to biodiversity loss, directly affecting human health and well-being. At D.DLab, we respond to these urgencies through three interconnected design-for-sustainability trajectories, each generating new knowledge for architectural practice:

 

Biodesign in Architecture
We explore how living organisms can be integrated into the very processes of architectural design and fabrication, cultivating multiscalar relationships between biology and architecture that enable environmental adaptation, carbon fixation, reduced energy use, and deep contextual responsiveness.

 

Material Driven Design for Additive Manufacturing
We embrace the performative potential of bio-based and waste-derived materials, harnessing the formal freedom of 3D printing to rethink architectural tectonics and awaken new tactile languages.

 

Human and Non-Human Perspectives in Design
We develop design approaches that center both human and non-human perspectives, creating computational design and prototyping tools that support multi-stakeholder and multi-species modes of authorship.

Design Educates Award | WoodenWood 2023

CyanoGems Fondazione La Triennale di Milano 24th International Exhibition 2025

D.DLab graduating members 2024

POMWOOD Resnick Catalysis Center Hackathon 1st prize 2025

D.DWOOD team and prototypes 2025

D.DLab retreat 2024

Weaving wood surfaces developed through robotic printing 2023

Q&A D.DLAB

What defines DDLAB as a research environment?

DDLAB serves as an interdisciplinary research platform at the forefront of computational design and digital fabrication, where researchers and practitioners converge. Integrating architecture, material science, biotechnology, and engineering, the lab fosters an intellectually rigorous and collaborative atmosphere that encourages experimentation with emerging technologies, material systems, and algorithmic design strategies. DDLAB is characterized by its commitment to innovation, enabling the development of speculative research, advanced prototyping, and critical inquiry that supports the creation of context-responsive, sustainable solutions for the built environment. This approach facilitates both technological advancement and the cultivation of interdisciplinary knowledge networks across academic, industrial, and cultural domains.

What does cross-collaboration mean to you?

It means working together with different ways of reasoning. We engage through concepts and applications to create results that address complex design questions. Collaboration to us is not just about support, it’s about exchanging ideas, challenging perspectives, and building a repository of knowledge without limitations

So you all are disrupters?...

Yeah, but only where the natural order of things is disrupted or got disrupted over time. Technology is a never-ending endeavour of solving problems while unintentionally creating others. We intersect design and technology to imagine new perspectives on prominent problems and new futures.

Where do science and design meet in your approach to sustainable architecture?

Our work exists at the confluence of natural intelligence and human intention. Through a material-driven design approach that explores biobased materials, such as wood waste, with eco-friendly binders, mycelium, or even living systems like cyanobacteria, we are not just designing forms; we are designing behaviors. Through 3D printing, we can shape how these materials grow, interact, and respond to their environments. Science helps us understand the chemistry, biology, and physics of these materials, while design allows us to choreograph their potential into performative architectural elements that breathe, insulate, adapt, and ultimately, coexist with the environment. It’s not about dominating nature,it’s about designing with it.

Do you only speak in programming code and parametric scripts?

We are technical translators. Our computational tools help us navigate design complexity, but we have just as much value on how we communicate our ideas. That means clear graphics, engaging presentations, and visual storytelling that bridges disciplines. We speak in models and metaphors to get our message across.

What are the key challenges of integrating living microorganisms into architectural design?

Scale is central when designing with microbial life. Microbial activity occurs at the microscale, while architecture traditionally operates at the human or environmental scale. Bridging this gap requires rethinking how systems interact across dimensions. Microbial life requires specific environmental parameters to survive and function, especially outside controlled laboratory settings. This reorients the architectural process around biological responsiveness. Instead of placing microbes within a predefined material logic, architecture emerges through a negotiation between environmental needs, biological functions, and spatial performance. As such, the integration of microbial systems is inherently multiscalar, and the design process must be biologically informed. Material formulations must support microbial activity; geometric conditions must provide suitable microclimates; and fabrication techniques must accommodate biological growth. It’s like constructing architecture as a habitat, where the living matter it houses actively contributes to its performance, aesthetics, and sustainability

What is the relation between design and 3D printing at D.DLab?

3D printing is not merely a fabrication tool, it is an active design medium. We see a symbiotic relationship between design and digital manufacturing, where material behavior, tool-path logic, and process parameters become generative forces in the design process. Rather than using 3D printing to replicate existing forms, we explore how its unique capabilities like controlled deposition, real-time feedback, and parametric responsiveness, can lead to novel expressions, functions, and material systems. In our lab, the act of making is deeply intertwined with the act of designing. We approach fabrication as an open-ended process, embracing unpredictability and material irregularities as integral to our aesthetic and performance-driven inquiry. This allows us to develop what we call behavioral geometries; forms shaped by material performance, environmental goals, and machine dynamics. This methodology repositions the designer from a form-giver to a system orchestrator, working with the machine rather than for it. Whether it's integrating mycelium-based biocomposites, rethinking waste through robotic extrusion, or tuning acoustic surfaces through layered toolpaths, our approach fosters a new kind of authorship where the designer, machine, and material operate together as active participants in the creative process.

What does it mean to design in alignment with decay?

Designing in alignment with decay means creating products, materials, or structures that intentionally consider their natural decomposition or transformation over time as part of the design process. Instead of resisting decay or aiming for permanence, this approach embraces the life cycle of materials — from origin to breakdown — and integrates it into the functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability of the design. This might involve using biodegradable or compostable materials, designing components for easy disassembly and reuse, or intentionally allowing materials to age, weather, or erode in meaningful ways. It reflects a shift toward regenerative design and environmental responsibility, acknowledging that nothing lasts forever and that thoughtful degradation can be a powerful, poetic, and sustainable design strategy