Kudos - Library for Material Relations
2024
What if architecture was based on care rather than exploitation of human and non-human actors involved? How can a space and its materiality facilitate
closer relations between humans and the built environment?
Kudos - Library of Material Relations is an exploration into different caring relations in architecture. It is an example of how architecture can act as a tool for forming bonds between humans, as well as between humans and the more-than-human actors. It offers visitors a chance to experience a space shaped together with non-human living beings. Simultaneously it calls for re-evaluating material relations in our built environment in general.
The project frames architecture as a process in a state of constant becoming, rather than an object frozen in time and place. Kudos was built and cared for in a series of workshops with various groups of people. Students at Annantalo childrens’ art centre and Aalto university summer workshop participants worked with fungal mycelium to create building elements. Clay panels were made in open workshops. Human visitors as well as the fungal and clay elements shape the space with their presence.
Materials for Kudos have been sourced locally in the Aalto University campus area. Fungal spawns were shared communally among researchers. Reed was collected from the shoreline to diminish eutrophication. Wood chips from the wood workshops were reused as nutrition to the fungi. Plywood was repurposed from a construction site on campus. Clay was recycled from a previous project.
Kudos - Library of Material Relations had its first iteration at Aalto University during Helsinki Designweek 2024. It is designed to be dismantled and rebuilt in new locations with new local material relations. During the festival the space facilitated discussions on more than human design, fungal life and material relations.
Kudos is part of Elina Koivisto’s doctoral dissertation at Aalto University. The project is funded by Aalto University and Kone Foundation.
