Architect Magazine Features LAMAS’ Research Project “Hair, Spikes, Cattail, and Turkeyfoot”
LAMAS’ research project Hair, Spikes, Cattail, and Turkeyfoot was featured in Architect Magazine as part of its 2011 R+D Awards coverage, written by Katie Gerfen. The project is included among a selection of experimental works recognized for advancing architectural research through design, fabrication, and material exploration.
The Architect’s Newspaper R+D Awards program highlights projects that expand architectural practice through research-driven approaches, including new construction methods, material systems, and representational techniques. In this context, the featured project is presented as a hybrid investigation into digital fabrication and traditional thatching techniques, developed through the fabrication of a pavilion made from bundled plant materials and custom-fabricated steel components.
The project explores how architectural representation can shift from conventional drawings toward sequences of operations and material instructions. It tests how craft knowledge and computational processes can be combined to organize soft organic materials into structured form, producing a construction logic that sits between digital systems and hand-assembled building techniques.