Designing with life: engineering the next generation of building materials

Materials have shaped civilizations, driving functional, economic, and environmental progress.In architecture, materials define structure as well as aesthetics, performance, andsustainability. Nowadays, the shift toward resilient, adaptive systems demands responsibleinnovation in material design. Sustainably sourced renewable materials promote ecologicalresponsibility; however, the next frontier lies in bioinspired and engineered living materials(ELMs). By integrating biological components with advanced material science, ELMs introduceself-regeneration, adaptability, and environmental responsiveness, offering new possibilities fordynamic, high-performance architecture. Abstract and Presentation