Bio
Stanislav Roudavski is an academic at the University of Melbourne and the founder of Deep Design Lab, a collective focusing on more-than-human design. His work addresses practical and theoretical aspects of more-than-human relationships in ecology, technology, design, and architecture. In collaboration with scientists, engineers, and Indigenous scholars, Stanislav's publications cover topics such as engagements with nonhuman agents in design imagination, creative computing, digital fabrication, and conservation ecology. He has participated in numerous international exhibitions and has received multiple awards and honours. Before his current academic role, Stanislav was involved in research projects at the University of Cambridge, taught at MIT, and practiced architecture in various European countries.
Title:
BioHavens: Open Research Questions in Structural Innovation for Urban Biodiversity
Synopsis
The aim of this presentation is to highlight a critically significant and largely overlooked field that urgently needs the expertise of innovative designers. Human activities are rapidly destroying habitat structures worldwide, leading to the extinction of entire nonhuman cultures, civilizations, species, and countless individual organisms. This loss profoundly impacts all life, including human societies and is difficult to reverse. However, there are many proven opportunities for positive intervention, such as the creation of artificial reefs, nesting places, tree-like structures, and bioreceptive surfaces. Unfortunately, current designs are often simplistic, as few designers or engineers focus on these topics. Instead, the responsibility typically falls to biologists or conservationists, who have expertise in ecology but not in innovative structures or advanced fabrication techniques. The central question of this presentation is: can designers, engineers, and builders of lightweight structures respond to this need? I believe that their involvement presents exciting creative and business opportunities, as well as an ethical imperative. To illustrate this, I will showcase a range of projects focusing on artificial habitat structures developed by Deep Design Lab and others, covering our methods for data collection and analysis to inform design, the concept that innovation can flow from nonhuman agents into more-than-human communities, the characteristic challenges in designing artificial habitat structures, areas where future research and innovation are needed, and opportunities for collaboration on ongoing and emerging projects.