waiwai Research & Design Agency is dedicatedto advancing the field of architecture through innovative materials and technologies. Our goal is to develop materials that not only meet the needs of today’s buildings, but also anticipate the challenges of the future. Today, as a result of the climate crisis caused by rapid urban growth and industrial production, it is clear that we need new approaches to designing and building, and a new vocabulary of materials that reduces our reliance on resource extraction. The best strategies for responding to the urgencies we currently face can often be found in the immediate environment and in the waste products produced as part of large-scale industrial processes. We can call this set of strategies a future vernacular architecture. The vernacular is often thought of as an architecture of the past, a set of solutions that have long since been surpassed by technological developments. But we should instead think of the vernacular as offering a range of opportunities and a toolkit for architects practicing today.
