Natural Materials Lab

Farm to Building: design/build workshop using raw earth construction

End life testing for 3D-printed earthen materials.
Research Assistant: Eleanor Davol

Raw Earth Sgraffito at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination

3D-printed soils and insulative fibrous infills.
Research Assistant: Reem Makkawi

Grounded Chairs: thermally-minded earthen seating options.
Research Assistants: Bishar Tabaa and Sarah Hejazin

BioMud Fabric: all-natural soil-based textile.
Research Assistant: Penmai Chongtoua

Earth-fiber experiments with lightweight mashrabiya construction.
Research Assistant: Tashania Audrey Akemah

Earth-fiber electron microscopy studies

OVERVIEW

The Natural Materials Lab, founded and directed by Assistant Professor Lola Ben-Alon, investigates raw, earth- and fiber-based building materials, their life cycle, supply chains, fabrication techniques, policy, and upscaled possibilities. Our research and teaching craft new ways to imagine and invent socially equitable and ecologically sustainable futures by converging material science, geology and geography, architecture, engineering, art, and design.

People

Lola Ben-Alon, Director

Research

Reflecting on the interconnectivity between material bodies through soil figurine printing

Transcorporeal Feminism

Investigating “dirt” panels as a substrate for mycelium growth

Dirty Mycelium

Developing digital weaving techniques for structural earth-fiber lattices

Digitally-Weaved Lattice Structures

Exploring flexible BioMud textiles through weaving techniques and geometries

3D Printed Textiles

Designing earth fabric wearables to deliver localized thermally-pleasurable experiences

Heated Garments

Tracing the social and material ecologies of sourcing earth through Sgraffito ornamentation

Raw Earth Sgraffito

3D printed earth-fiber experiments with lightweight Mashrabiya construction

Digital Earthen Tiles

Advancing flexible, structural textiles with natural earth- and bio-based materials.

BioMud Fabrics

Mapping eco-friendly materials through building policy and education

Earth Building Codes Analysis

Using biophilic design and natural materials to promote recovery and wellbeing in healthcare envi...

Biophilic Materials Toolkit

Speculating on the mineralogical content of earth materials for buildable -and edible- practices

The [Eat Me Build Me] Project

The environmental impacts of thermal experience and survivability in earth dwellings

Thermal Comfort and Survivability

A raw (non-stabilized) rammed earth installation at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory

Farm to Building

Advancing the science and geometry of 3D printed earth-fiber composites

Digital Earth-Fiber

Catalyzing the use of low-carbon and community-engaging building materials through systematic lif...

Environmental and Social Life Cycles

Integrating earth as a wearable substance, built directly onto one’s body

Soil Garments

Grounded Chairs is a 100% organic biodegradable low-carbon seating system

Grounded Chairs

Achieving complex parametric forms through analog means with clay

Earth Pendulum

Reconciling architectural representations of housing while drawing from land art practices

Laminated Earth

Teaching

Introducing architectural design responses for energy, climate, and comfort

TECH I: Environments in Architecture

Understanding and managing embodied / operational energy via Life Cycle Assessments (LCA)

TECH 5: Construction and Life Cycle

Fabrication seminar exploring manual and digital techniques for earthen constructions

Making With Earth

A project-based seminar that provides both theoretical and hands-on building experience

Down to Earth

Capturing site-specific geology, labor, and migrations through clay, additive, and mold-making

Desert Geotiles Workshop

Characterizing a range of soils to create a collective rammed wall installation

Common Ground

Publications

Columbia Books on
Architecture and the City

this is the work of my friend sherry te!

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First page of the article with abstract and introduction for Developing 3D-Printed Natural Fiber-Based Mixtures

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Image of article first page with title, author, abstract, and introduction section

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A journal article cover with the title "Can we eat Earth Buildings?" subtitle, article authors, institutions, and additional information

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the first page of the article with title, authors, abstract, and introduction

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journal article first page of title, authors, abstract, keywords, and introduction

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journal cover of Building and Environment, August 15 2023 volume

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article first page with title, authors, keywords, abstract, and introduction

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article front page with title, authors, institutions, chapter outline, and intro to first chapter---wowee

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article first page with title, authors, schools, keywords, abstract, and introduction...again

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article with yellow/beige font authors, black text institutions, title, and introduction

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article first page with colorful logos of conference organizers, article title, authors, abstract, introduction, and a bar graph oooo

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article front page with no color, long title, authors, institutions, contact, abstract, and first section

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article first page with a header (damn) title, left indented authors, institutions, and abstract. Followed by a lengthy introduction and creative commons footer (nice)

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article with header, title, indented authors, schools, abstract, and non-indented first chapter and creative commons footer (intellectual freedom :)

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a relatively straightforward first page of an article with title, authors (in lighter grey text), abstract, introduction, and two (count them, two) lines, one for the header and one for the footer

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a typical, everyday article first page with title, authors, abstract, and introduction

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article first page, i am getting pretty tired of writing these

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it is really tragic that the emphasis on properly written alt text is not endorsed by those around me. It feels as though I am a salmon swimming upstream, knowing that I will be the one caught by the bear's jaws

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i am so close now, i do not think i can do this any longer. how much of an accessibility nightmare is this entire website which is primarily images

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Mobile screenshot of Pioneer Works' Second Sundays Nov 2022 event, with a funky yellow/purple duotone photograph of a saxophone player

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Instagram poster graphic of Heart to He(art) with a photo of researcher Penmai Chongtoua modeling the soil garments

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Article cover within Columbia Magazine's Fall 23 issue, vertical and horizontal text and photos of the earthen works

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Webpage screenshot of the Flows and Sinks event at Institute of Ideas and Imagination, featuring a photo of the sgraffito carving and website text

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Poster of Indian Ceramics Triennale and affiliate logos on pink wave graphic

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Poster of Biocalibrated event with text overlaid on electron microscopy photograph of some biomaterial

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Title graphic of urbanNext Lexicon of Expanded Architecture, pulled from a Youtube video

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Cyan colored magazine cover of ADM 2023 The Green Issue by LiFo

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Gsapp nml experimental landings 2022 07 08 book

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Who We Are

The Natural Materials Lab is directed by Lola Ben-Alon, Assistant Professor and Sequence Director of the Building Science and Technology curriculum at GSAPP.

Current Team
Dr. Olga Beatrice Carcassi, Associate Researcher
Penmai Chongtoua, MA. Climate and Society ‘22
EunJin Shin, M.Arch '24
Kate Perez, M.Arch '25
Tashania Audrey Akemah, M.Arch '24
Pavitra Nayak, MS.AAD '24
Grace Schleck, B.Arch '24
Trella Isabel Lopez, M.Arch '24
Yuna Li, M.Arch '24
Aidan Ford Chisholm, MA. Modern and Contemporary Art '24

Past Researchers and Assistants
Zina Berrada, M.Arch ‘23
Mohammad Hossein Zowqi, M.Arch '25
Kumru Emine Taha, CC '25
Zackary Eugene Bryson, M.Arch '24
Andrew Chee, M.Arch '24
Sarah Hejazin, MS.AAD '21
Bisher Tabaa, M.Arch '23
Saba Ardeshiri, M.Arch '23
Jennah Christina Jones, M.Arch '23
Mariami Maghlakelidze, MS.AAD '21
Reem Makkawi, M.Arch '22

Recent News

May 31

Faculty Lola Ben-Alon delivers keynote lecture at Future View: Vernacular Technologies Symposium at the Hillier College of Architecture and Design, NJIT

Apr 19

Faculty Lola Ben-Alon delivers keynote lecture at Penn State Huck Institute of Life Science for the Center of Biorenewables Symposium

Apr 16

Faculty Lola Ben-Alon is an invited guest speaker at the ETH Zürich’s Circular Engineering for Architecture Lab (CEA)

Apr 12

24.03.04 material time banner 1200 b 2 1200x0 c default

Faculty Lola Ben-Alon is an invited guest speaker at the Material Time symposium at Harvard Graduate School of Design

Apr 5

Faculty Lola Ben-Alon is an invited panelist at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museuum’s Bioplastics & Sustainable Design Futures Scholars Day

Jan 22

Professor Lola Ben-Alon publishes book chapter in Pedagogical Experiments in Architecture for a Changing Climate

Jan 19

Assistant Professor Lola Ben-Alon presents her installation "Transcorporeal Feminism" at the Indian Ceramics Triennale, New Delhi

Jan 16

Prof. Lola Ben-Alon, in collaboration with the Columbia Engineering Kawashima Lab, and CU Boulder's Living Materials Lab, published "Rheology and 3D Printing of Alginate Bio-Stabilized Earth Concrete” in the recent edition of Cement and Concrete Research journal.

Jan 9

Prof. Lola Ben-Alon, Penmai Chongtoua, and Sasha Fishman’s panel discussion Reflections on Transcorporeal Feminism was highlighted in Mid-Day News (Mumbai).

Jan 8

Faculty Lola Ben-Alon (GSAPP Natural Materials Lab) and Associate Professor Shiho Kawashima (Columbia Engineering) host 3D Printed Earth hackathon at the Carleton Lab for Civil and Mechanical Engineering in collaboration with GreenSAPP students

Events

Tue, Sep 19, 2023 9:30am

2022 ACSA Summit: Experimental Landings Gallery Talk & Exhibition

Exhibition Opening

Terrain in black in white with the text Experimental Landings: An Exhibition overlaid

Tue, Nov 17, 2020 11am

The Warmth and Wisdom of Mud Buildings

Lecture

The exterior of a mud brick school building with bamboo roof and second floor. The exterior hall is lined Colorful doors and children's shoes.

Virtual

Wed, Sep 30, 2020 6pm

GSAPP Conversations:
Natural Materials Mini Series with Lola Ben-Alon

Columbia GSAPP · GSAPP Conversations - Season 4

Over the Fall 2020 semester, Assistant Professor Lola Ben-Alon hosted 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.