The Living's Hy-Fi

Benjamin's Hy-Fi design was selected in February to occupy the courtyard of MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, for the summer months. The tubular tower is constructed from special bricks made from corn stalks and mycelium; the latter's fungal properties fill the voids of the brick over the course of about a week to create the final product. The bricks will be composted after the installation's three-month run as a backdrop for the popular Warm Up series.

The New York Times has a short film in which we see the tower under construction and hear from Benjamin about its design. Click here to watch the video.

As mentioned, on the day Hy-Fi opened to the public, Autodesk announced it has acquired The Living "to create an innovative, first-of-its-kind Autodesk Studio." The studio will "create new types of buildings, public installations, prototypes, and architectural environments ... to actively experiment and rapidly deploy these new design methodologies in the physical world and the built environment."

Benjamin started The Living in 2006, and in that time has created a number of innovative projects, like Hy-Fi, that creatively explore the intersections of design, science, technology and the living environment. Benjamin also leads the aptly named Living Architecture Lab at Columbia GSAPP; more on the Lab can be seen in the video below.