Student drawing
In the spring and summer of 2025 Tyler Architecture students and faculty, in a multi-disciplinary collaboration with horticulture, engineering, city and regional planning and community development, and fibers and materials, developed a new biogenic building material made from flax, the latin term for which is "linum usitatissimum." What began as a study into carbon positive, biogenic building materials, grew into an investigation at a range of scales from the planetary, to urban, to material. This investigation of this new material, "flaxcrete," culiminated in the installation of a "bird blind" at Temple's Ambler Campus and an exhibition at Main Campus.
Primary student participants: Ella Horvat, Ryan MacMurray, Siah Thach, Graham Thomas, Lorenzo Trevino
Student collaborators: Nada Ally, Hannah Bennett, AJ Bracy, Ella Brindo, Brandon Delia, Dante Formosa, Tharani Kannan, Cloe Rivest, Nina Heller, Jessiemae Iquina, Jack Jaggs Nelson, Justin Kemmerer, Jared Lista, Jesenni Maisterrena, Britney Sciarillo, Payton Sucharski William Webb, Dylan Wilson, Zoszia Zabrenski
Instructor: Assistant Professor Jeff Richards, RA
Final Install