The unEarthed / Second Nature / PolliNATION w/ Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim

The inaugural symposium, moderated by renowned critic and curator Aaron Betsky, will take place on Friday, May 9, from 2 to 6 p.m. This global gathering will feature twelve visionary speakers whose work explores the intersections of architecture, ecology, and engineered systems. Through a series of dynamic hour-long conversations, each participant will share their unique perspective on how design can engage both human-made and natural systems in transformative ways.

Confirmed speakers include: Kevin Jones, VT Honors College, Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Vicente Guallart, Urbanitree, Summer Islam, Material Cultures, Olalekan Jeyifous (artist/designer), Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE, Maria Lisogorskaya, Assemble, Ferdinand Ludwig, Baubotanik, Mireia Luzárraga, TAKK, Qingyun Ma, Mada s.p.a.m., Claudia Pasquero, Ecologic Studio, and Enric Ruiz Geli, Cloud 9 Architecture.

https://www.theplan.it/eng/whats_on/unearthed-second-nature-pollination

La Biennale di Venezia Architettura 2025 w/ Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim, Peder Anker, Melanie Fessel, and Paul D. Miller

Venice Biennale of Architecture, May 10th - Nov. 23rd, 2025.

19th International Architecture Exhibition: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.

Coding Plants: An Artificial Reef and Living Kelp Archive

In the future, libraries won’t be built, but grown. Here, botanical elements will be genetically augmented to store the knowledge of specific architectural forms—houses, bridges, communal spaces, etc.—that can be extracted and used to challenge polluting construction methods. The goal is to design urban environments that adapt and evolve in balance with their surrounding ecosystems. Plants will function as living archives, encoding detailed information within their DNA to allow users to influence and direct their growth and structure. This approach integrates radical sustainability directly into a semi-natural ecosystem, creating a harmonious blend of hybrid nature and human innovation.

Coding Plants is a synthetic living reef that is the ultimate archive preserving design knowledge. A single gram of plant DNA can, at least theoretically, store up to 215 million gigabytes of data. By embedding design knowledge into living organisms, Coding Plants is a suppositional green architectural agenda in which nature is empowered on the genetic level. While this may seem hypothetical, it is grounded in recent breakthroughs in genetic engineering. This approach heralds a living architecture that profoundly rethinks conventional building practices while fostering resilience and ecosystem integration.

Coding Plants is a semi-natural kelp reef in which architectural records become edible proteins. Encased within vitrines is a collection of suspended, self-contained hybridised organisms that showcase dynamic natural processes. Scientists have injected encoded information—comprising text, images, and drawings—into the genetic material of this novel vegetation, making the reef into a living comprehensive library.

Credits: Terreform ONE

Mitchell Joachim, Peder Anker, Melanie Fessel, Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky.

Studio: Vivian Kuan (Executive Director), Julie Bleha.

Design: David Paraschiv, Emily Young, Sky Achitoff, Avantika Velho, JJ Zhijie Jin.

Science: Oliver Medvedik, Sebastian Cocioba.

Collaborators: Wendy W. Fok, WE-DESIGNS.

Media: Michelle Alves De Lima.

Research: Nicholas Lynch, Marina Ongaro, Ava Hudson. Jerzelle Lim, Helen Gui.

Sponsors: U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, New York University, NYU Global Research Initiatives in the Office of the Provost, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences.

Special Thanks:

Carlo Ratti, Curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition. Victoria Rosner, Dean of Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. 

https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2025/progetti-e-partecipanti

MAXXI Museum, Restless Architecture w/ Terreform ONE

MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, IT.

Terreform ONE, Homeway models, Restless Architecture, galleria KME. Exhibition: October 2024 - 16 March 2025. Curation and exhibition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Special Thanks: Viviana Vignoli, Phillip Denny, David Allin, Serena Zuliani, Sabrina Sideri, Francesca Melissano, Chiara Castiglia.

https://www.maxxi.art/en/events/architettura-instabile/

Fast Company: Terreform ONE Wins BioDesign of the Year!

INNOVATION BY DESIGN 2024. 

This wild building grown from trees could be the future of architecture Terreform ONE’s Fab Tree Hab is a winner of Fast Company’s 2024 Innovation by Design Awards.

See HERE

Disrupting Mobility 2024 Berlin w/ Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE

Disrupting Mobility 2024 in Berlin will bring together a select group of global thought leaders, mobility innovators, operators and experts to explore pathways to more effective change and impact for positively disrupting mobility and advancing truly sustainable cities and regions.
May 15th-16th, 2024, Deutsches Technikmuseum, Berlin.

https://www.disruptingmobility.org/speakers

RISD Nature Lab Lecture w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab at Rhode Island School of Design, May 6th, 6:30 PM, 2024.

The Nature Lab and Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies present the third lecture in the 2024 Spring Speaker Series: Mitchell Joachim, "Bunnies and Biotech: Designing Synthetic Life"

see here: https://naturelab.risd.edu/events/spring-speaker-series-mitchell-joachim/

Terreform ONE in Domus w/ Fab Tree Hab

Emanuele Quinz, 04 March 2024, DOMUS: "Alive and growing: architectures made of trees"

"Architecture has always been a mineral technique, producing buildings that are stable, impermeable, and strong. But what if we turned our focus to plant-based architecture instead?"

https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/gallery/2024/03/01/growing-architecture.html

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant to Terreform ONE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 25th, 2024

Innovative Architectural Design Project, Fab Tree Hab, Receives Prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Grant

[Brooklyn, NY] – Terreform ONE's recent initiative, the Fab Tree Hab, has been honored with a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), recognizing its revolutionary approach to architectural design. Fab Tree Hab focuses on creating multispecies dwellings using 100% living grafted woody plants, aiming to redefine green architecture.

“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to Terreform ONE which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”  

Project Narrative: 

The Fab Tree Hab is a terrestrial reef and grafted living tree structure that serves as a habitat shared by both humans and animals. It is sublimely located on ten acres of land in New Windsor, New York, just a few minutes from the Storm King Art Center. 

Created by Terreform ONE, this innovative project combines indigenous tree-grafting techniques and computationally designed wooden arch scaffolds. The primary objective is to prototype a dwelling seamlessly integrated into its natural landscape while replacing harmful industrial materials with decarbonizing, bio-based alternatives. This aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15, which focuses on Life on Land, as it promotes sustainable land use and biodiversity.

Spanning approximately 1,000 square feet, the structure ingeniously incorporates locally sourced 30-foot-tall tree clusters, meticulously shaped on-site using large cross-laminated timber (CLT) arch scaffolds. Harvested from a nearby biomass farm, these willow trees form the backbone of the construction. The infill wall modules, treated with a combination of beeswax and pine rosin, serve as the canvas for a unique blend of handmade crocheted jute fibers and 3D-printed bioplastic volumes, fostering multispecies habitats. The end result is a vibrant living habitat that significantly enhances biodiversity, creating micro-habitats and intricate food webs for both flora and fauna.

The project is in alignment with the mission of Terreform ONE, a 501c3 nonprofit art, architecture, and urban design research group dedicated to addressing the extinction of planetary species through innovative design solutions. Founded in 2006, the group is led by Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. (Co-Founder) and Vivian Kuan (Executive Director). The Fab Tree Hab stands as a testament to their dedication to creating inclusive spaces and implementing strategies that promote environmental and social justice for all living beings. Joachim, reflecting on the project, noted, "It has taken over fifteen years of research and development, dating back to my time at MIT, to bring this vision to fruition."

The National Endowment for the Arts, established in 1965, is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Mitchell Joachim at (617) 285-0901 | info@terreform.org.

Photos and video are available at https://www.terreform.org/fab-tree-hab.

For more information on the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Guangzhou Design Triennial w/ Terreform ONE

Guangzhou Design Triennial

The Warm-beings

Guangdong Museum of Art

January 16–May 31, 2024

Naiyi Wang co-curator.

Participants: A.A.Murakami (Azusa Murakami & Alexander Groves), Aldo Cibic, Alissa + Nienke, Alvaro Catalan de Ocon, Chen Min, Colin Fournier, ecoLogicStudio (Claudia Pasquero & Marco Poletto), Eric Klarenbeek & Maartje Dros, FormaFantasma (Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin), Lin Fanglu, MOS Architects (Hilary Sample & Michael Meredith), Neri Oxman, Onearthstudio, Shahar Livne, Studio Ossidiana (Giovanni Bellotti & Alessandra Covini), Terreform ONE (Mitchell Joachim & Vivian Kuan)

Matters of Care at Guangzhou Design Triennial 2024 is supported by Design Trust Feature Grant. 

https://www.gdmoa.org/

Next Nature Magazine: Spacefarming

Ruben Baart, Next Nature Magazine: Spacefarming, "Cricket Shelter, Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE". pp. 110-113.

https://nextnature.net/shop/products/next-nature-magazine-spacefarming-en

Fab Tree Hab: Multispecies Living Structure

The Fab Tree Hab is an extension of its surrounding ecosystem, a habitat made from native willow trees that play host to humans and nonhumans. As dynamic as a forest, the structure is an embodiment of 100% living matter, upending human-centered and energy-intensive construction practices. The system can act as a major catalyst to improve air quality, sequester carbon, increase biodiversity, as well as provide refuge and food sources to local fauna. 

Sourced from a local biomass farm, thirty-foot tall tree clusters are shaped on-site within large cross-laminated timber (CLT) arch scaffolds. After a year’s worth of growth, the trees support the modular multispecies wall system. Wall components are made from a combination of handmade crocheted jute fibers and 3D-printed bioplastic volumes. These serve as micro-habitats and food webs for flora and fauna to greatly increase biodiversity. The structure takes a socio-ecological approach to design, serving as an observatory and education center for people, while also providing a refuge to wildlife. 

URL:

https://www.terreform.org/fab-tree-hab

Video:

https://youtu.be/_fN6huCiBE8?si=_VB1q12LxksLzX7u

UN Goals House By Design: Creating Healthy and Resilient Cities w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

Goals House, ‘By Design: Creating Healthy and Resilient Cities’, co-hosted by Bupa and the Norman Foster Foundation. Event is moderated by The Guardian’s US live news editor, Chris Michael. 

Roundtable participants include:  

• Dr. Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE, and NYU
• Dr. Maria Neira, Director of Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organisation
• Dr. Marina Romanello, Executive Director at Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change
• Ashwin Vasan, The Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, New York City Commission
• Dr. Mauricio Ilabaca, Head of the Environment Department Chilean Medical College
• Glyn Richards, Director of Sustainability, Bupa
• Diego Lopez Urruchi, Co-head of Architecture and Technology Unit, Norman Foster Foundation
• Shruti Narayan, Regional Director for South and West Asia, C40
• Arthy Hartwell, Policy Lead, Climate and Health, Wellcome Trust
• David Croft, Global Head of Sustainability, Reckitt
• Laura Mann, Director, Global Partnerships and Operations, AstraZeneca
• Gary Cohen, President, and founder, Health Care Without Harm

https://www.goalshouse.com/

ETH Zurich - Enough Seminar w/ Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE

Enough Seminar: Prototyping Circular And Ecological Systems In Urban Contexts

ETH Zürich D-ARCH

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Hubert Klumpner Prof. of Architecture and Urban Design / LUS

Adey Bryan T. Prof. of Infrastructure Management / D-BAUG

Mitchell Joachim Prof. of Practice at NYU, Terreform ONE

Momoyo Kaijima Prof. of Architectural Behaviorology / IEA

Silke Langenberg Prof. of Construction Heritage and Preservation / ITA / IDB

https://klumpner.arch.ethz.ch/

Engineering Biology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

Engineering Biology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Daniel Grushkin (MODERATOR)

Founder and Executive Director, Biodesign Challenge

Fashion Institute of Technology 

Theanne Schiros, Associate Professor 

Pratt Institute

Jeanne Pfordresher,  Artist/Designer 

New School Parsons Healthy Materials Lab

Alison Mears, Director/Co-Founder Parsons Healthy Materials Lab

Associate Professor of Architecture 

Terreform ONE

Mitchell Joachim, Associate Professor NYU and Co-Founder 

Location: Industry City, Camp David

220 36th Street, Brooklyn NY

 https://buildsbio.org/engineering-biology-fourth-industrial-revolution/

Scope NYU Research Magazine with Mitchell Joachim

Renee Alfuso (ed.) "Memory Serves," Scope NYU, ISSUE #4, 2023.

https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/publications/scope-magazine/scope-2023/think-tank.html

Pandemic Effect w/ Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE

Joachim, Mitchell, Miller, Paul D. and Peder Anker, “Commemorating COVID,” The Pandemic Effect: Ninety Experts on Immunizing the Built Environment, Braine Brownell (ed.), Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 44-45.

KoozArch Interview w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

Interviews on KoozArch April 3rd 2023

Design with Life: Terreform One

A conversation with Mitchell Joachim, co-founder of Terreform ONE, on the book Design with Life, Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities (Actar Publishers 2019), the regenerative use of natural materials and the impact of socio-ecological urban design.

https://www.koozarch.com/interviews/design-with-life-terreform-one

New York School of Interior Design w/ Mitchell Joachim- The Sally Henderson Green Design Lecture 2023

New York School of Interior Design

Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE: The Work of Architecture in the Age of Synthetic Biology

In the challenging context of accelerating climate dynamics, the core discipline of architectural design is evolving and embracing new forms of action. New York-based nonprofit Terreform ONE has established a distinctive design tactic that investigates projects through the regenerative use of natural materials, biological science, and the emergent field of socio-ecological design. This kind of approach uses actual living matter (not abstracted imitations of nature) to create functional elements and spaces. These future-based actions are not only grounded in social justice but are also far-reaching in their application of digital manufacturing and maker culture. Terreform ONE tackles urgent environmental and urban social concerns through the integrated use of living materials and organisms.

The Sally Henderson Green Design Lecture is an annual event created to honor the memory of NYSID faculty member, Sally Henderson, who developed the College’s first course in sustainable or green design.

Keynote at DASA Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE

German Museums Association has made sustainability a priority - DASA, a permanent educational institution of the Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, informs the public about the world of work, its importance to individuals and society, and the importance of designing work in a humane manner. 

Lectures include; “Museums in Transition”. Dr Annette Ludwig, Director of the Museums of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, will talk about “Sustainability Strategies in the Museum Landscape of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar”, Dr Iris Edenheiser, Director of the Hygiene Museum Dresden, about “Greening up DHMD. Scenography meets institutional sustainability strategy”. Prof. Dr. Sascha Peters, Haute Innovation, will speak on “Sustainable Materials for Exhibition Designers”, Dr. Susanne Nawrath, Klimahaus Bremerhaven, on “Future Perspectives and Power2Change – Communicating Sustainability”, and Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE/ New York, on “Scenographic Architecture in the Age of Synthetic Biology”. 

https://ndion.de/en/dasa-scenography-colloquium-2023-nachhaltigkeit-ausstellen/

Photo: Andreas Wahlbrink, DASA

DesignIntelligence Podcast: Here and Now (and in the Near Future) w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

This is Design Intelligence, David G. Gilmore and Mitchell Joachim. 

TIDI068: Here and Now (and in the Near Future)

https://www.thisisdesignintelligence.com/2023-podcasts/here-now-near-future/

https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-ip9ui-1357748

Norman Foster Foundation Workshop on Sustainability w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

Workshop on Sustainability: Norman Foster, President, Norman Foster Foundation. 

Claudia Pasquero, Co-founder, ecoLogicStudio, London, United Kingdom; Landscape Architecture Professor, Innsbruck University, Austria; Associated Professor, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom 

Marco Poletto, Co-founder and Director, ecoLogicStudio; Unit Master, Architectural Association (AA), London, United Kingdom 

Stefano Boeri, Principal and Founding Partner, Stefano Boeri Architetti, Milan, Italy 

Cristina Iglesias, Installation Artist and Sculptor, Madrid, Spain 

Mitchell Joachim, Co-founder of Terreform ONE; Associate Professor of Practice, New York University (NYU), New York, NY, United States 

Mohsen Mostafavi, Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design and Former Dean, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States 

Brenda Parker, Associate Professor of Sustainable Bioprocess Design and Director, Bio-ID Lab, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom 

Katie Paterson, Visual Artist, Edinburgh, Scotland 

Moshe Safdie, Founding Partner, Safdie Architects, Boston, MA, United States 

Joseph Bou Saleh, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), Barcelona, Spain 

Saad Boujane, Graduate School of Design (GSD), 

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States 

Miran Calmanovici, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel 

Terezia Greskova, University of Innsbruck, Austria 

Maria Kuptsova, University of Innsbruck, Austria 

Charles Edgar Lincoln, Confluence Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation in Architecture, Paris, France 

George Malliaropoulos, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom 

Dana Molzhigit, Barlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom 

Isaac Palmiere-Szabo, Barlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom 

Ellen Marie Reinhard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, MA, United States

https://normanfosterfoundation.org/educational_cat/workshops-and-seminars/

ACSA Intersection Conference Talk w/ Mitchell Joachim Terreform ONE

07 Oct, 02:30 PM - 03:30 PM

EXPANDED FUTURES: PLENARY

This session will explore artist and designer responses to environmental resilience. Using nature as inspiration these designers have investigated what it means to create a closed-system environment, what we can learn from other organisms and how we can push our own thinking about the futures of the built environment.

Moderator: Stephen Mueller, Texas Tech University

Presenters

Lydia Kallipoliti, Cooper Union

Joyce Hwang, University At Buffalo, SUNY

Mitch Joachim, Terreform ONE

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) are pleased to announce the third annual joint AIA/ACSA INTERSECTIONS Research Conference dedicated to the INTERSECTION of Education, Research and Practice.

https://www.acsa-arch.org/conference/2022-aia-acsa-intersections-research-conference-resilience/

Art at Water’s Edge symposium at Park Avenue Armory w/ Mitchell Joachim

Artists, activists, and designers engage the meeting of land with water. Facing climate change and rising sea levels, this event links New York with communities across the nation and globe that sit at water’s edge. 

SUN OCT 9: Where Do We Go From Here?

4:00pm–5:15pm: Concurrent Sessions

Metabolism | Photosynthesism
Eco-systems artist Michael Wang in conversation with Global Asia theorist Eng-Beng Lim regarding micro and megastructures of plant ecology on Purple Earth.

Signe Nielsen in conversation with Mitchell Joachim
Landscape architect Signe Nielsen (Little Island) in conversation with Mitchell Joachim (The Monarch Sanctuary) on resilience and adaptation in the built environment.

At the Sea’s Edge
Sociologist Macarena Gómez-Barris in conversation with durational artist and activist Sarah Cameron Sunde on Sunde’s durational performance with the sea.

Atlantic is a Sea of Bones
Artist and activist Tourmaline in conversation with performer Egyptt Labeija, star of Tourmaline’s film Atlantic is a Sea of Bones on linking past, present, and future on the West Side Piers of Manhattan.

5:30pm: Closing Remarks
Author and director May Joseph (Fluid New York, Terra Aqua) shares some her recent work and reflects upon the day’s proceedings. Moderated by Tavia Nyong’o

 https://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/symposium_art_at_waters_edge

Netflix, The Future Of: Skyscrapers w/ Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE

The Future Of: The Verge’s Netflix show about the future of everything is now streaming, see Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE in The Future Of: Skyscrapers S1:E10. Vox Media Studios, Maria Gabriella Pezzo, Sofia Melo.

Design Intelligence, Unlimited Pedagogy w/ TerreformX

Melanie Fessel, Mitchell Joachim, TerreformX, Q3 INFLUENCE: WORLD BUILDING Unlimited Pedagogy, Design Intelligence Quarterly, 2022. Michael LeFevre Editor, DI Media Group.

https://www.di-mediagroup.com/2022-quarterly/q3/unlimited-pedagogy/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

https://www.di-mediagroup.com/media/website_pages/di-mediagroup.com/2022-quarterly/q3/unlimited-pedagogy/unlimited-pedagogy.pdf
 

Digital Landscape Architecture (DLA 2022) Conference at Harvard University

https://vimeo.com/showcase/9664313/video/721215562

Digital Landscape Architecture Conference Coming to Harvard GSD June 9th-10th, 2022 hosted by Stephen M. Ervin. DLA2022’s keynote speakers are Mirka Beneš of the University of Texas at Austin, Anya Domlesky, ASLA, Director of Research at SWA Group, and Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE / NYU.

https://thefield.asla.org/2022/04/26/digital-landscape-architecture-conference-coming-to-harvard-gsd/