Growing Buildings: Highlights from Our Event at KPMB
On October 30th, 2025, the Toronto BioBuild Collective hosted Growing Buildings at KPMB Architects, bringing together architects, designers, students, and researchers to explore bio-based materials, hands-on experimentation, and regenerative building practices. Guest speakers Jerry Hacker and Lisa Moffitt shared insights from their work in design-build pedagogy, material research, and full-scale mock-ups, opening up thoughtful discussions around how experimentation and teaching can inform architectural practice and low-carbon construction.
Jerry Hacker’s presentation, “Trading Textbooks for Crowbars: Design, Disassembly, and Material Responsibility,” focused on the environmental and architectural consequences of how buildings are assembled — and how they are taken apart. Drawing from his teaching practice, he reflected on the challenges of disassembling conventional wall systems and emphasized the importance of designing assemblies for reversibility, material separation, and future reuse. His talk highlighted how bio-based materials and alternative connection strategies can challenge conventional assumptions about durability, performance, and constructability.
Lisa Moffitt’s presentation, “Raw Earth: Material Research, Pedagogy, and Regenerative Futures,” explored earth-based materials through model-making, full-scale experimentation, and pedagogical frameworks. Her talk traced how soil composition, fiber integration, and fabrication methods can be studied through iterative testing, positioning earth not only as a construction material, but also as a design medium capable of holding cultural, environmental, and technical knowledge. The presentation also stressed the importance of regenerative systems, hands-on material learning, and institutional support for long-term experimentation with natural materials.
Through these inspiring presentations and engaged discussions, it became clear that cross-disciplinary collaboration and bold experimentation with bio-based materials and circular strategies will be key to driving real change in our cities.
Thank you to everyone who joined us, and especially to Jerry Hacker and Lisa Moffitt for sharing their time, knowledge, and work with the Toronto BioBuild Collective community.
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