This thesis is a critical analysis of the existing building culture in Houston, including the material choices and lifespans that make up the current conditions. Rather than accepting the anonymity of construction materials and practices, this project disrupts the seemingly inevitable inertia of these norms. This project speculates about an alternative future of building working within the framework of the seemingly banal existing construction assemblies through the exploration of a case study house as a lab of living building materials, capturing a testing ground in a moment of transition.

This new understanding of assemblies, materials, and processes changes the relationship between the natural and built worlds. By creating a messy living situation, we are forced to consider our surroundings and the messiness of living in the world. As this system takes over the building, it will eventually compost the existing construction. In the same way, this system is eating away at existing practices to transition to a more holistic system of biomaterials. After testing these systems on the case study house, the vision is that these interventions are strategically deployed across many building types in order to slow down the damage of construction while building up a counter-reality. I want to acknowledge that this presentation essentially shows a moment in time probably a few months past the installation. The users of this Lab House record their experiences in many terms: experiential, thermal, and maintenance. They plan to start similar interventions on other local buildings using these studies to produce a strategic, targeted application of materiality. Although their built environment has been subsumed with the natural, not all buildings using these assembly processes will be quite as heavy in terms of application.

Introducing the results of the case study house into the mainstream construction market creates new methods and systems that can be broadly applied and eventually replace our existing materials and assemblies. This exploration of a transitional mode of building revolutionizes the value systems and methods that designers and construction professionals use. As we rework this paradigm, it raises the issue of the continuous labor of care and the question of who and what else should be considered in the creation and maintenance of buildings . By treating soil, buildings, and humans as equal companions, the given paradigm is no longer valid, and the creation of a new system lends itself to an industry of building care. This thesis is a stance on individual and collective relationships with the environments in which we live. A key supporting document is the catalog of dirty assemblies which details building processes, experiences and metrics from the case study house, and insight into how to move forward. It shows how to tangibly confront pressing issues of environment, material, and existing building culture. The catalog offers an accessible framework that makes us deeply examine what it means to inhabit the world today.