During the Fall of 2025, 18 MArch & EBD Students enrolled in the ARCH-7325 Biomaterial Architectures Elective led by Laia Mogas-Soldevila (DumoLab Director) and Yasaman Amirhzehni (MSD-AAD Graduate & DumoLab Senior Food Waste Researcher) developed bio cladding systems from plant waste supported by an EII Awarded Research Community on Resilient Urban Food Systems.
Six teams collaborated with DumoLab, PennFarm and PennPraxis by developing bio-based composites to provide cladding and furniture for a much needed outdoor classroom on the farm grounds, and with a wooden frame skeleton to be completed by Praxis by end of Spring 2026. Students collected inedible crop waste from seasonal sorghum, sweet peas, eggplant and okra at PennFarm and transformed it at DumoLab by drying, grinding, mixing with sustainable binders, digitally manufacturing water-based blends using 2.5D and 3D printing, molding and casting, and hybrid technologies, as well as devising post-processing techniques of site-specific environmental adaptation and durability. Outcomes comprise tables, stools, shingles, panels, air chambers, and bio-receptive tiles, and will be naturally weathered and monitored over Spring at the PennFarm to study their performance in outdoor and semi-outdoor conditions to later serve the Farm's classroom building cladding by Spring-Summer 2026.
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