The lab allows for material experimentation and builds on research undertaken into biofabrication and exploration of disregarded local resource streams into new fabrication technologies. Developing low-impact formal outcomes is important where so much of ‘sustainability’ in the built environment is reductive. We believe architecture is an important opportunity for cultural expression, and the techniques and materialities we develop in the Heliotope Lab allow us to be playful.

Currently domestic in scale, the research and experimentation also informs Heliotope thinking around current domestic waste streams, and how we might re-imagine the metabolism of our homes.

As the Heliotope Lab grows, we hope to foster stronger relationships with community and share skills and knowledge.