Arts
Sigi Koko in Conversation with Lola Ben Alon. This fall, GSAPP Conversations and faculty host Lola Ben Alon created a mini series on natural and living building materials. The Natural Materials mini series consists of interviews of 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, Assistant Professor of Architectural Technology Lola Ben Alon, talks to east-coast-based architect Sigi Koko, about building naturally with earthen materials like clay, as part of an architectural practice. Sigi’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. This interview is the first of a four-part miniseries on how experimenting with and utilizing natural materials is changing the future of architecture and design pedagogy. Interview recorded remotely in November 2020.