Natural Materials: Clay

Sigi Koko in Conversation with Lola Ben-Alon. This fall, Faculty Lola Ben-Alon hosts a mini-series on natural and living building materials as part of the GSAPP Conversations podcast. The Natural Materials mini-series consists of conversations with designers, builders, and product developers of clay, bamboo, fibers, and bacterial concrete. Natural materials are defined as minimally processed, readily available, nontoxic, healthy, and engaging materials. They are critically needed to reduce carbon emissions and extractive harmful impact associated with conventional building materials. In kicking off the Natural Materials mini-series, Lola Ben-Alon, Assistant Professor of Architectural Technology speaks with East-Coast-based architect Sigi Koko about building naturally with earthen materials like clay, as part of an architectural practice. Koko’s work displays amazing ways that earthen materials behave in the dramatically different climates of the United States, and how we could benefit from incorporating these earthen materials in our own work. The conversation is the first of a four-part mini-series on how experimenting with and utilizing natural materials is changing the future of architecture and design pedagogy. (This conversation was recorded remotely in November 2020.)