Aditya Mandlik Explores Multispecies Architecture Beyond Human-Centered Design
Integrating water, worms, and bees to redefine architectural agency and ecological interaction.
1Challenging Humanist Architecture
Traditional architecture often centers on a singular human figure, leading to sanitized environments that exclude microbes and insects. Aditya Mandlik proposes a post-humanist framework, shifting the architect's role from author to curator. This approach seeks to cultivate multispecies encounters, integrating natural intelligences into the built environment to move beyond anthropocentric design limitations.
2Gradients as Design Language
Mandlik utilizes gradients as a computational framework to manage complex behaviors between two absolutes. By adjusting the density of values like soil fertility or moisture, designers can create differentiated conditions. These intersections allow for nuanced interactions between non-human actors, echoing Jakob von Uexküll’s concept of the Umwelt within architectural spaces.
3Factory 5.0 Material Agency
The Factory 5.0 project investigated material agency by placing thousands of kingworms within transparent acrylic enclosures. These organisms consumed and perforated polystyrene, transforming the material through erosion and decomposition. This experiment shifted the focus from static fabrication to a dynamic continuum, where biological agents actively participate in shaping the architectural experience.
4Water as Ecological Medium
Moisture serves as the primary gradient for inter-ecological interaction, connecting planetary urbanism to molecular survival. Mandlik views wetness as a critical design parameter that facilitates transactions across species. By managing water movement, architects can influence biological processes from the cell membrane level to the broader watershed, creating sustainable, interconnected living environments.
5Lonavala Residence Experiment
In a residential project in Lonavala, Maharashtra, Mandlik addresses the rapid expansion of built footprints in ecologically rich regions. The design strategy focuses on maintaining a conversation with local water, plants, and pollinators. Instead of simple insertion, the house functions as an experiment in extending architectural agency to support the surrounding ecosystem.
6Supporting Pollinator Networks
The project integrates bees by creating conditions that support their specific needs, such as flowering cycles and nesting opportunities. By treating rainfall as a curated resource, the landscape design fosters moisture gradients that sustain native vegetation. This network of dependencies ensures that the site remains hospitable to pollinators throughout seasonal changes.
7Curating Interspecies Transactions
Mandlik’s methodology treats architectural design as a series of incentivized transactions rather than binary conditions. By understanding how rainfall is retained and dispersed, the studio organizes vegetation to favor specific microbial and insect communities. This curatorial approach allows for collaboration across differences, enabling non-human organisms to thrive within the built environment.
8Redefining Architectural Future
The shift toward post-human architecture requires a pedagogical reorientation of the discipline itself. By embracing consumption, erosion, and decomposition as valid design outcomes, architects can move beyond the finished object. This evolving practice suggests that the future of design lies in fostering relationships that allow diverse species to shape our world.