Mods and Odds: Experiments in hands-on circular design and fabrication for architecture

Principal Investigator
Associate Prof. Caitlin T. Mueller and Prof. Sheila Kennedy, Architecture
Fund: Alumni Class Funds
Funding Period: AY2024
Department/Lab/Center: Architecture

This project seeks to create educational opportunities to connect MIT undergraduates with ongoing research and teaching efforts in experimental circular design for the built environment in the Department of Architecture. In today’s context of climate crisis and dwindling finite resources, circular design is an approach across scales that seeks to reuse materials over multiple lifecycles as an alternative to traditional virgin material extraction. There is great underexplored potential to advance these principles in architecture, which has expanded in recent years with technological possibilities and community-based organizational efforts. With the Alumni Class Funds, we will develop a platform for undergraduate students to engage in these topics via workshops and UROP research project. This creates new opportunities for undergraduates to combine interests in design, technology, and sustainability.