Daniel Bell - Materials are Heavy, Ideas are Light

The Hearing Architecture podcast, proudly sponsored by Brickworks, presents Again and Again and Again, a mini-series hosted by Hilary Duff.

Each week we bring you interviews and conversations as we seek better ways to understand, harness and deploy the expertise and knowledge of professionals currently within the design community, at home and abroad. Our guests are all experts on circularity within the building industry and share the aim to display that waste is not an accident, but the consequence of decisions made at the design stage. Here is our opportunity. We as designers have an opportunity to do better.

In this episode I meet with Daniel Bell of Atelier Luma, based in the Camargue region in the South of France. Daniel graduated as an architect from the Glasgow Mackintosh School of Architecture and has since practiced as an Architect in France, Ireland, and the UK. 

Since 2018 he has worked at Atelier LUMA; a design and research lab located in Arles. His role here is a slight deviation to the traditional role of an architect, yet he is often working with built space and materials. At Atelier Luma he has joined a team of designers, engineers, scientists, and experts from the fields of culture, craftsmanship, humanities, and social sciences and innovation, to explore the potential of non-extractivist, and often discredited, local materials. Their research subjects vary across areas including invasive plants, agricultural coproducts, algae, and industrial waste. Each project has a hyper local focus.

I visited Atelier Luma back in June 2023 shortly following the opening of their new headquarters: Lot 8. Sited within a heritage park of 27 hectares, Lot 8 sits within a campus collection of architectures, with neighbours such as Frank Gehry and Annabelle Selldorf, and a series of historic railway industrial buildings dating from the 19th century. The site is now inhabited by functions including a modern art gallery, and a series of exhibition spaces. The Atelier adds a new function to the park; a semi-public and most fascinating research hub of bioregional design, operating out of a building or rather, one large prototype of what the Atelier researches and investigates.

In Spring 2023, Lot 8 opened as a result of a three-year large-scale, experimental building project, designed to serve as a pilot program in the field of renovation. Designed by and for Atelier LUMA, it is the teams’ workplace. A research and prototyping space that consists of a biolab, wood, ceramics, textile and research workshops, office spaces, a dye house, a material testing lab, and a functional plant garden. 

Le Magasin Électrique is built and equipped with the results of Atelier LUMA’s research, in collaboration with BC architects & studies and Assemble, London. From the coating of the façade to the crystal salt door handles. Structural elements such as walls and partitions were produced from waste earth and minerals, and agricultural coproducts. The acoustics and the finishing of the interiors were done with panels of sunflower fibres, rice straw, and soil from the bioregion. The terrazzo floor, bathroom tiles, stains, door handles, and light fixtures are the result of years of research into algae, salt, bioplastics, earth, and enamels in collaboration with local partners.

In the following interview, Daniel and I discuss how the building was conceived as a pilot project for an architectural process celebrating craftmanship, collective experimentation, site specificity and the development of biomaterials. In this case the process is anchored in the Arles or Camargue bioregion and the designers tapped into a network of local and international expertise, in order to share acquired knowledge.

We discuss the need to move from a globalised, extractive supply chain, towards regional ecosystems of materials that help regenerate the environment. How it is imperative for designers to question the way materials can be assembled, reassembled, or reconfigured to contribute to its adaptation to changing environmental and social conditions.

It was wonderful to see a project where the design team identified opportunities, possibilities, and poetics, over waste. 

This has been Again&Again&Again, a mini-series of Hearing Architecture, proudly sponsored by Brickworks, made possible with the support of the Alastair Swayn Foundation. This episode was recorded during a period of residency with the Danish Arts Association in Copenhagen. Thank you so much for listening and thank you to our international guest Daniel Bell of Atelier Luma. Thank you for exemplifying how through investigating the resources and know-how in our bioregion, and connecting different fields of expertise, we can develop local solutions for ecological, economic, and social transition.

Let’s watch this space and we look forward to speaking with you again in the future.

Our sponsor Brickworks also produces architecture podcasts hosted by Tim Ross. You can find ‘The Art of Living’, ‘Architects Abroad, and ‘The Power of Two’, at brickworks.com.au or your favourite podcast platform.

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This is a production by the   Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. The miniseries Again&Again&Again is proudly supported by the Alstair Swayne Foundation. The Institute production team was Madelynn Jenkins, and Claudia McCarthy, and the EmAGN production team was Daniel Moore and Hilary Duff.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

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