Selected among ArchDaily’s Best New Practices 2023, Willow Technologies was founded by designer Mae-Ling Lokko. This Ghanaian-Philipino architectural designer works towards the research, development, and deployment of bio-based building materials.
Willow Technologies’ materials
Working with agricultural waste and biobased materials implies technical questions regarding scalability, industrial production, standardization, fireproofing, and mechanical strength. Exploring these elements in the context of developing regions in Western Africa is Willow Technologies’ starting point.
Through comprehensive work with coconuts, moringa, rice, and other indigenous crops, the practice investigates and catalogs the material character of various crops, possible by-products, local processing techniques as well as the prospects and challenges of scalability involved in building materials.
The importance of an indigenous supply chain
According to Lokko, scalability “can only happen in parallel with stimulating demand through the understanding and education around these materials.” In a country like Ghana, where the commercialization of indigenous species is constantly decreasing due to the influx and marketing of imported hybrid food species, Willow Technologies’ research practice has focused on inducing the demand and productive use of indigenous crops and agricultural by-products, as only through this could the crop generate enough by-product quantities to be scaled into building materials.
Willow works together with start-ups, private institutions, and governmental organizations to accelerate the research, development, exhibition and deployment of low-carbon technologies across sectors and to train local and global partners on these issues.
Website:
Name:
Willow Technologies
Domain:
Biobased materials
Plus:
Development, education, and dissemination of low-carbon materials and technologies.
Features:
Biobased materials, agricultural by-products and building technologies in Western Africa.
This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano
Images: Willow Technologies