Econic Design may not sound familiar, yet, but it is a pioneering direction for architecture and design of the future. It takes the point of view of “Ecology + Icon = Econic” and aims to construct buildings that are not only environmentally friendly, but actually contribute to the city experience and quality of life. Inspired by Brazilian tribes, Econic Design goes further than just energy efficiency and sustainability, and explores energy generating materials!

Econic Design is still in the experimental stage and being work-shopped at University of Pennsylvania School of Design and in Rio. Club Of Pioneers will be following it's evolution and host a discussion where pioneers and students can exchange ideas.

As an introduction, here is an interview with Econic Design facilitator and Club of Pioneers member Matthias Hollwich.
What is your personal background and work?
I am an architect - born, raised, and educated in Munich.
I call the basis of everything I do in my architectural praxis “concept engineering and space shaping”. It's a way to affect architecture in a more substantial way than to just design according to a client brief. Most recently I have worked with the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau and started my own company that recently moved from Amsterdam to New York – HollwichKushner.
Can you talk more about the Econic Design course ?The University of Pennsylvania is a hot breeding grounds for new direction and talents in architectural design. I call it an Ivy League underdog (maybe because of it being in Philadelphia) - the university does not have the “star power” of Harvard or Columbia – but has a unique diverse faculty, cross departmental collaborations (biology meets structural engineering and architectural design) and a progressive open minded and curious group of students. It has the perfect DNA for inventiveness. The class I am teaching is a “classic” 3rd year design studio with a “non classic” syllabus. The studio task is the design of an Econic Building located in Rio de Janeiro.
Ecology + Icon = Econic.
What was your incentive and what do you hope to achieve?
Architecture is mainly developed from a program with specific dimensions packaged into an experience and a good looking envelope. A contemporary and responsible architect will infuse sustainable ideas and try to minimize the impact of the building on our environment. When I was in Rio this spring I heard about Brazilian tribes, living in the rainforest. They settled in areas of weak vegetation and started to plant new flora, and nurtured the grounds. Once the plants prospered they moved on, looking for the next weak spot. The whole attitude was about an active responsibility to nature. Whether it was a fairytale or real it inspired me to ask the question How can we, as architects, design buildings that have a positive effect on the surroundings?” In the same way rainforests are being used as equity for CO2 trading, architecture might also become valuable and equity in itself. In the Econic Studio I aim to develop with my students
buildings that are initiators for a new consciousness in society where the design is based on ecological findings that turn into an attractor and infrastructure for ecological knowledge generation and communication. A building that is in tune with its urban and natural context generating clean air and providing its surrounding with energy rather than abusing the context and poisoning it by burning fuel and wasting material.
Explain the relationship between theory and practice? I call myself an “Experimentalist” and this is also how the studio is structured. Very often you can see in architecture a lot of theories being developed but than the translation into spatial artefacts is lacking. In the studio the students are already developing spatial concept models. Parallel to this they are researching aspects of sustainability, references and inspiration in nature, key ecological projects from the last years etc. Over time the experimental models, the research and site-specific aspects will merge into one consistent entity that we will retroactively theorize at the end.
What will happen in Rio?In Rio we will visit the site, which is located in the heart of Rio de Janeiro at the location of the former art academy and embedded in a dense urban context. The urban location requires an integrated response to renew its urban environment and therefore site presence
and analyses is crucial. We will also visit the rainforest and buildings from Oscar Niemeyer. On two days we will have “white room workshops” where we invite guests for a workshop in which everybody infuses knowledge, critique, and suggestions into the concepts. Rio is also the moment where the students need to commit to one specific concept direction and bring all the different parts together into one cohesive entity. Of course we will also embed ourselves into local culture and hopefully participate in a samba event!

Why is it important for designers to think about sustainability and follow through with it after the “green” trend has passed?I think it is not a question of thinking about sustainability or not. It is pure math that if we do not apply sustainable ideas, humanity will have a very tough time in the future. The world will recover in one way or another and reinvent itself – but we humans are the ones who are truly in danger. To me it is interesting that during my education as an architect in Germany 16 years ago sustainability was key and all our designs had be ecological enhanced. It was state of the art – but in the US and many other countries that sentiment awoke just a few years ago and many applied methods and technologies are still lacking. With adding formal language to ecology I hope to raise awareness – but also allow the design discipline to expand its vocabulary with a reason-based output. We can almost repeat Mies van der Rohe's message of
“Form follows function” but the term function has vastly expanded including providing “sustainable performance” and a “green marketing message”. In the future I wish that sustainability – or even better, regenerative ideas - are part of any architectural project globally
and new progressive spatial configurations, programmatic fusions and formalistic expressions evolve.
What are your personal thoughts on Econic Design?To me Econic Design is a vision that sets goals but also triggers curiosity and creativity. I told my students that the studio is not calling for a building that is ecological in every sense, but for ways of thinking that show a range of potential. Ideas and solutions are to establish a speculative vision for the future. I can imagine Simulated Ecosystems, Adapted nature, Living technologies, Added eco-machines, Growing structure, Pollinating energy, Materials as nutrients, and many more directions that are initiated by the Econic idea.Can you mention other projects that are pioneering in their design?The exciting aspect of today is that many creative people work with sustainable ideas in one way or another. In architecture where we had Modernism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism I can see an "Ecologicalism" unfolding.
People or works of creativity I like for one
or another reason are:
Sir Norman Foster for the Hearst Tower and others, Marcel Kalberer and the Arena Salix, Oppenheimer Architecture and Cormiami building, Cloud 9 and Morphorest, Herzog & de Meuron - their Beijing Stadium, Janine Benyus for Biomimicry, Rem Koolhaas - A Creative power head), Toyota (Prius), Mayor Bloomberg and his Green City Plan, MVRDV(Expo 2000 Pavillion), Al Gore and Live earth, Germany
(has had an ecological drive for years), Books by J Scott Turner (How design emerges from life itself)
and Kenny Ausubel (Natures Operating Instructions ) and many others including Mother Earth.all images courtesy of M Hollwich