Climate models predict two feet of sea-level rise as early as 2050 in multiple coastal cities around
the world. These changes in climate will consume our current building systems that makeup the urban
fabric of the world’s coastal cities. Cultural commons will be an afterthought as people will be in survival
mode as their homes and essential spaces are threatened. Without culture who are we as humans? Culture
is the way we see the world and our place in it. Culture shapes our thoughts, our feelings, and behavior. It
is a record of history and is how we connect to one another. What if our building systems could nurture
and protect cultural commons while recalibrating to the environment? Traditionally, the research in
material systems in the discipline has searched for design strategies that acknowledge the intricate
associations between form, fabrication, and material behavior. What if material research also incorporated
a response to changes in time and captured the spirit of the life that inhabits it? Researchers from Studio
[DMIC] Digital Matter –Architecture of Catalonia developed an innovative ‘low-tech’ material called
hydro-ceramics in which thermodynamic processes are tackled passively through a ceramic facade
embedded with hydrogels. The main advantage of hydrogels are their hydrophilic quality that allow them
to absorb 500 times their weight in water and dissipate it through evaporation over a period of time. What
if hydro-ceramics were deployed at a large scale, as a form generator and construction tool? Could
building systems and circulation be interconnected throughout the hydrogel chambers in a dense masonry
mass? Could this material be a tool to create resilient architecture that protects cultural commons?
