Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)
Department
Landscape Architecture
Program
Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies
First Advisor
Markus berger
Second Advisor
Felipe Shibuya
Abstract
Contemporary architectural practice has come to rely on a narrow repertoire of high-energy industrial materials, giving rise to what might be called a material "hegemonic structure" in which certain substances and construction logics dominate at the expense of others. This dominance suppresses material diversity and limits architecture's capacity to align with ecological processes, producing a systemic metabolic imbalance within the built environment. At its root, this imbalance reflects a structural absence: the persistent treatment of architecture as a closed, controllable system that imposes human will upon matter while suppressing its inherent agency.
Engaging with what Jane Bennett terms "vital materialism," this research argues that a focus on material agency is essential to grounding architectural practice within regional ecological realities. In this framework, matter is redefined not as passive substance but as an active agent — possessing lifecycles, dynamic capacities, and intrinsic autonomy. Building on this premise, the research introduces a systemic approach to exploring how material responsiveness might reconfigure spatial relationships within the built environment.
Positioning the interface as the primary site of spatial operation, this study employs composite materials made from waste wool and bioplastics as its experimental medium. The investigation examines how material behavior activates interfaces, enabling responsive and permeable spatial structures to emerge and spatial relationships to be renegotiated. Methodologically, the work moves between scientific experimentation and design practice, integrating recipe development, material testing, design intervention, and site deployment. Through iterative cycles of interaction and feedback, this process gradually evolves toward perceptual interfaces capable of sensing and responding to environmental conditions.
Recommended Citation
Chen, Yahui, "Unleashing Material Agencies" (2026). Masters Theses. 1673.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1673
Creative Commons License
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