Dr Alberto Pugnale and team win first prize at IASS 2024 Design Competition

Dr Alberto Pugnale and his interdisciplinary project team including Dr Sofia Colabella, Michael Mack, Michael Minghi Park, Jack Halls, Dr Gabriele Mirra, Alexander Holland and Dr Stanislav Roudavski from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning have been awarded first prize for their project, FloaTree , at the IASS 2024 Design Competition and Exhibition of Innovative Lightweight Structures held at ETH Zurich.

Created within the Advanced Digital Design + Fabrication (ADD+F) Research Hub, the FloaTree pavilion represents a groundbreaking effort to create artificial habitats informed by AI-generated abstract designs of ancient trees.

Using an interdisciplinary approach combining AI, ecological design, and structural engineering, the development of these habitats has the potential to be used in disaster recovery situations, providing on-site, easy to install “trees” for wildlife that has had their environment destroyed by fire or flood.

“We had a great time at ETH Zurich, and we want to thank the IASS 2024 organising committee and the wonderful staff involved in making this happen. We see this project as a blend of design research and more hands-on ecology work and can’t wait to see how it evolves as we learn more,” Dr Pugnale said.

Dr Pugnale believes the ADD+F Research Hub’s work in developing AI-generated habitats has urban design implications as well, allowing designers to create biodiverse structures in city and industrial spaces.

“This design competition challenged us to create design-to-construction workflows that can be implemented at a larger scale at the University's new Fishermans Bend in the next few years,” Dr Pugnale said.