The 1,300-square-foot (120-square-metre) building was added to a property in the desert city, which is located roughly halfway between Ciudad Juarez and San Antonio.
DUST has built an accessory dwelling unit on a property in Marfa
Despite a population of only roughly 1,900 people, the town has established itself as an arts hub for the Southern United States, and is home to Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation and Ranch amongst other cultural institutions.
"With the onset of Covid and lockdowns, the owners decided to change up their life plans, packed up their belongings in Tennessee, and move full-time to Marfa," said DUST, which is based in Tucson, Arizona.
The interior features compressed exposed earth bricks throughout
The ADU is built from compressed earthen blocks, drawing cues from some of the local area's vernacular construction techniques.
It encompasses a bedroom and toilet, which are private, and a more public lounge and patio where the owners can host visitors.
Concrete floors contrast the brickwork
"The impetus behind the project was a desire to build a new private primary suite for a couple to seek refuge when their children, grandchildren, and friends visit," said the studio.
"The suite became a calm respite and a place to work remotely, full time."
A long desk runs below the lounge window
Within the lounge, a long desk runs along an entire wall and faces a large window.
There is plenty of room for two people to set up a workstation overlooking the property's cacti and shrubbery.
"The living and work lounge receives early morning light and offers a place for the owners to view the reverse sunset, as it opens to the east and allows for unobstructed viewing across a soft grass and gently sloping valley towards Haystack Mountain," said DUST.
In the bedroom, a large skylight is centered over the bed, which the architects said is useful for letting off excess heat built up during the day. Additionally, it offers an opportunity for stargazing in Marfa's clear night skies.
The main bedroom opens onto a private terrace
A full-height sliding glass wall opens the bedroom to a small courtyard, where the owners keep a vegetable garden and can relax away from their guests if desired.
The compressed earth bricks are left exposed throughout the interiors, creating a contrast with the simple concrete flooring found throughout the home.
The clients built the unit as a retreat from the main house behind
DUST is led by Cade Hayes and Jesús Robles, who founded the studio in 2007.
Polish practice Wiercinski Studio has converted two shipping containers into a portable house, which is currently located in a garden next to the Szelągowski National Park in Poznań.
The clients, described by Poznań-based Wiercinski Studio as "a couple of brave people interested in searching for difficult to adapt spaces", wanted a structure that would serve as both a home and office that could be relocated.
Called Portable Cabin, the dwelling was created by connecting two shipping containers along their long edges to create a 12.5 metre long, nine metre wide space.
Portable Cabin by Wiercinski Studio was constructed using shipping containers
"The implementation of a portable cabin and remote workplace turned out to be a great response to the present times," said the studio.
"The great advantage of this facility is its mobility," it continued.
"The house ceases to be a property tied to a specific space, but it can change its location along with the changes accompanying the life of the owners."
It is comprised of a number of stacked shipping containers
Portable Cabin was placed on top of another pair of containers that are being used for garden storage. All four containers were painted in a matching olive green to "camouflage" them from the park.
Apart from this green paint, the exterior of the shipping containers has been left as-found, "to show the sincerity of the raw construction material," said the practice.
Due to the sloping site, the upper pair of containers have been shifted slightly northwards, creating a 25-square-metre roof terrace looking out over a nearby river on the roof of the lower containers.
Two shipping containers were adjoined to each other
The cabin, which was insulated with spray foam before being lined with birch plywood panels, was constructed in an off-site production hall and then transported to the site.
Keeping the internal finishes minimal enabled the creation of 2.6 metre-high ceilings, disguising the central join of the two container frames.
An external steel and wood staircase leads up into the interior, which is organised with a bedroom to the north and an open plan living, dining and workspace to the south, with a bathroom between.
Wooden planks line the floors of the interior, which features simple furniture and light fittings around a metal fitted kitchen. On the sides of the containers, a series of small, mid-level windows are positioned to allow for a variety of interior layouts.
The interior was clad with wood
At the southern end of the containers, the doors have been replaced with large areas of glazing, incorporating a door leading onto the decked terrace which is wrapped by a curved metal balustrade.
In future, the clients plan to relocate Portable Cabin into the nearby forest, and eventually make it possible for the structure to be installed above water.
The shipping container doors were replaced with large glass windows
For more examples of shipping container architecture see Dezeen's recent round-up, which includes a stadium in Qatar made using 974 containers and a floating student residence by BIG made using a ring of nine containers.
The first section of the plant-covered 1,000 Trees development, designed by British designer Thomas Heatherwick's studio, has officially opened in Shanghai, China.
Described as "Shanghai's Hanging Gardens of Babylon", the mixed-use development features up to 1,000 pillars, each with a tree planted on top. It was designed by Heatherwick for developer Tian An.
The first phase of the development has now opened
The first phase of 1,000 Trees opened with a lighting ceremony on 22 December in Shanghai's Putuo district after eight years of development. It is located next to the city's M50 arts district and a public park.
Comprising two mountain-like peaks, the development will span 300,000 square metres and encompass restaurants, museums and galleries, as well as a number of historic buildings, when complete.
Large planters with trees cover the 1,000 Trees mixed-use development
"It will become the most shining 'pearl' along the 42-kilometer-long Suzhou Creek riverside in Shanghai's downtown," Song Shengli, deputy director of Putuo's publicity department, said in a statement.
Heatherwick's design for the development sees the columns that provide structural support for the building turned into decorative planters that each hold a handful of trees.
"We see the planters as natural extensions of the columns, almost like a shoot that has worked its way through three levels of car park, eight levels of retail, and then up and out to the roofscape to blossom," Heatherwick Studio's partner Lisa Finlay told Dezeen in 2019.
Inside the pillars is a hidden watering system to keep the trees healthy. More than 70 different tree species were used for the 1,000 Trees project.
The development encompasses restaurants and museums. Photo is by Tian'an 1,000 Trees.
A second phase of the project, a taller structure that will feature hanging gardens, is under construction and will open in two years, according to the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. An enclosed link bridge, tunnel and ground floor drop-off will connect the two "mountains".
Both parts of the development are located on the site of a former flour factory, part of which has been incorporated into the new complex, including an old bell tower that will now function as a sightseeing elevator.
"The aim was (to have) a warm and live structure with harmonious relationship between human and nature, rather than a concrete mammoth," said Huang Jingsheng, project marketing general manager.
After being confined to small-scale experiments for years, biomaterials finally catapulted into the mainstream in 2021 according to the architects, designers and manufacturers using them as building blocks for a new low-carbon economy.
"Biomaterials used to be niche," said Regina Polanco, founder of bio-based textile manufacturer Pyratex, which has almost doubled both its sales and clients since 2020. "But we've seen a huge increase in need from big corporations."
"In the last year, there's been a real explosion in interest," agreed Jad Fink of shoe brand Allbirds, which has developed a sugarcane bioplastic sneaker foam that's now used by companies including Reebok and Timberland.
Mycelium has been used to create insulation (above, photo is courtesy of Biohm) and Adidas trainers (above)
Plant-based alternatives to petroleum, concrete and steel which can sequester CO2 rather than just emitting it, have recently been backed by a wave of big-name investors, with Adidas and Hermès incorporating fungal mycelium leather into fashion pieces and BMW debuting a concept car with natural latex tyres and a steering wheel made from sawdust.
With growing investment, manufacturers have been able to ramp up their production capabilities while lowering their prices, making the range of biomaterials on offer more readily accessible and diverse.
"We built a house on a real scale," the studio's co-founder Lucas De Man told Dezeen. "That was not possible a few years ago."
"Biomaterials are going from trend to reality," he added. "It's going to be the fourth economic revolution."
Natural materials were the basis of civilisation
Before being sidelined by synthetic materials with the advent of the industrial age, bio-based materials derived from plants, animals and other living organisms were widely used by humans to construct the world around them.
In recent years, design students, material researchers and scientists have been tinkering with adapting these long-established solutions for contemporary applications, as awareness grows about the waste and carbon emissions associated with our modern material palette.
Then, in 2021, those with deep pockets also began to recognise the potential of plant-based materials.
"We used to build bio-based and then we went through our 'we are god-like' period," De Man explained. "Now, we have problems with too much nitrogen and too much CO2 in the atmosphere and we've realised that was not the best way to go."
BMW's i Vision Circular concept car has tyres made from natural latex and recycled plastic. Image is courtesy of BMW
Biomaterials can offer a promising alternative to mainstream building products because they are made from renewable resources, which generally emit less carbon dioxide in their production and processing while also being easier to recycle or biodegrade.
When farmed in a regenerative way, they also have the potential to be carbon negative, as plants and organisms like algae and fungi remove CO2 from the atmosphere while they are alive and store it in their cells.
"In general, anything that is natural has the potential to draw more carbon down than it produces," explained Fink, who is the vice president of innovation and sustainability at Allbirds.
Due to a lack of funding, innovations in this space have so far generally been expensive, hard to scale and relegated to experimental projects such as The Living's Hy-Fi pavilion and the fish scale bioplastic developed by graduate Lucy Hughes.
MarinaTex is a fishcale bioplastic by student Lucy Hughes
But Polanco argues this is changing as governments are beginning to regulate polluting materials and businesses are setting their own decarbonisation goals, with nearly 50 per cent of leading companies in key markets from apparel to automotive already committed to reducing their so-called "scope three" emissions from materials.
"I believe that in the next couple of years, many brands won't be able to keep using the materials they are using at the moment because there will be way more legislation," said Polanco, adding that this is also coupled with growing bottom-up pressure from customers.
"Pyratex is a B2B company," she explained. "But at the moment, we are receiving around five enquiries per day from consumers that are asking us where they can find our fabrics. This wasn't happening in 2020."
Architecture firms investing in research
While regulations around the embodied carbon footprint of buildings remain lax, architects are starting to wake up to the importance of minimising not just the operational emissions of their buildings but also the emissions from materials and construction.
As a result, prominent architecture firms including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Snøhetta have recently collaborated with universities on material research projects, investigating everything from mycelium building materials to concrete made with algae or biochar.
"We've been very much in the weeds of looking at biomaterials over the last year, much more rigorously than ever before," said Hasman of SOM.
"We desperately need to reduce embodied carbon emissions and the market and supply chain is quite limited in its ability to offer solutions today."
According to Hasman, that's because safety performance tests for their use on structures upwards of four storeys have so far been lacking.
"The applications are still limited because there isn't enough investment, funding and testing to confirm that they're safe to use," she said.
This is necessary in order to overcome regulatory hurdles, which are currently restricting the use of wood, hemp and other plant-based materials in buildings due to fears around combustibility.
Companies need to act collectively
But both Hasman and De Man expect that bio-based materials could be adopted at a mass scale within the next five years.
For that to become reality, companies will need not just to invest in materials but also switch from a competitive to a collaborative mindset, sharing their findings with the rest of the industry as Allbirds did with its bioplastic SweetFoam for trainers.
"We thought it was really important for other companies to get access to it," reflected the company's Fink.
"Not just because we're nice people but because to make it cost-efficient and scalable, you're going to need big chunks of industries, multiple industries, asking for this stuff."
Counterspace's Serpentine Pavillion is clad in cork panels. Photo is by Iwan Baan
With this aim, SOM has open-sourced its research on timber towers while fashion designer Phillip Lim made the bamboo-and-seaweed mesh, which he developed with Pyratex as part of creating a petroleum-free dress, available to all of the manufacturer's clients.
But scaling up bio-based materials also comes with many of the same risks as scaling up agriculture, where industrial farming practices see certain crops or animal products prioritised over all others and shipped around the world, causing emissions, deforestation, soil erosion and a loss of local biodiversity.
"When things grow very fast you always have to make sure that it's ethical," said De Man.
"Because biomaterials are there to change the system, not just to make sure that people don't feel bad about the bad decisions they make."
Biomaterials can help reverse climate change
Over the next ten years, De Man argues, scaling up biomaterials will involve setting up closed material cycles that make use of abundant, local resources and actively regenerate ecosystems rather than exploiting them, so they can act as carbon sinks.
Biobased Creation's prototype home, for example, includes insulation made from reed and flooring made from cattail – two marsh plants, which can help to rebuild the peatlands and wetlands that the Netherlands has lost to agriculture while still generating a profit for farmers.
"So you have this whole material cycle that is solving different problems at the same time," De Man explained.
Pyratex and Phillip Lim developed a bamboo-and-seaweed mesh for a petroleum-free dress
Similarly, Allbirds is currently helping its Merino wool farm in New Zealand to make its operations carbon negative by trapping more carbon in soil through regenerative farming practices such as rotational grazing than is released in the material's production process.
"That's when we move from minimising climate change to reversing climate change," Fink mused. "And that's what we think the next wave of biomaterials needs to need to focus on."
Circularity supercedes degradability
Making biomaterial production truly regenerative also requires a system for reusing and recycling the materials into products of similar value to prevent an excess of biological waste, which could release its stored carbon back into the atmosphere during decomposition or incineration.
"The brands we work with are now much more interested in circularity than in biodegradability," said Polanco. "Because even if you say this fabric is degradable under certain conditions, you can't ensure that that will happen."
Pyratex is already trialling this approach in the form of a take-back programme with Spanish fashion brand Neutrale, in which disused garments made from Pyratex fabrics are returned to the manufacturer to be converted into new textiles.
If the burgeoning biomaterials industry can manage these challenges effectively, we may look back on 2021 as a turning point in the way things are made and buildings are built.
Continuing our review of 2021, Dezeen picks our top 10 videos of the year including exclusive interviews with architects Sumayya Vally and Kengo Kuma and behind-the-scenes looks at the most notable installations of the year.
In the first of our highlighted videos, Sumayya Vally discussed the meaning behind her Serpentine Pavilion design in an exclusive video filmed at the temporary building.
The structure was designed to celebrate and reference London's migrant communities. Vally took cues from iconic cultural spaces such as the Four Aces Club in Dalston, one of the first London music venues to showcase black musicians.
In this exclusive video produced by Dezeen for OPPO, Kengo Kuma describes how he wanted to create a "spiritual experience" through his Milan Design Week pavilion.
The piece combined traditional bamboo with contemporary technology. Lengths of bamboo were bound to carbon-fibre backing and coiled to form a giant ring-like structure.
The pavilion also acted as a percussive instrument and used reverberating motors, speakers and exciters to generate sound. The percussion was accompanied by a score composed by Japanese violinist Midori Komachi and architectural sound design studio Musicity.
In this video, curator Florence Ostende took us through the Isamu Noguchi retrospective at the Barbican Centre in London.
The video showcased the prolific work of Noguchi, a 20th-century artist who created works in sculpture, lighting, furniture, performance and set design. He is best known for his iconic Akari light sculptures. Ostende described the ideas behind Noguchi's work, delving into the social aspect of his work.
The next video in our round-up focused on a recent installation at the London Design Museum designed by architect Arthur Mamou-Mani in collaboration with Dassault Systèmes.
The installation, which coincided with the Waste Age exhibition, was designed to explore circular architecture. It was created using a 100 per cent recyclable bioplastic made from fermented sugar.
The winner of Dezeen and LG Display's OLEDs Go! competition was revealed in this video. Entrants to the competition were tasked with creating innovative new designs that showcased OLED technology's key qualities.
First place was awarded to Richard Bone and Jisu Yun for their design titled Scroll. Scroll mimics an unravelling roll of paper and can be used as both a physical and digital display. This multipurpose design was chosen for its practicalness and innovation.
British designer Paul Cocksedge told us about his new chandelier 'shaped by gravity' in this video.
Designed for Moooi, the piece was designed to reinvent the traditional chandelier as something more accessible. The video was part of our Design Dreams series with the Dutch brand, which explores how successful designers turned their dreams into reality.
Dezeen created this video showcasing the five architecture pavilions on display at this year's Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen.
Installations responded to the idea of "social architecture", and included an edible dining canopy, a temporary pavilion made from inflatable bags and a human-scaled wire reconstruction of Charlottenborg, the arts venue where the fair was held.
In this video, Tom Dixon described how he collaborated with VitrA to create his first bathroom collection.
Named Liquid, the collection features smooth, chunky forms and soft lines, creating a minimalist aesthetic. "What I'm trying to get to is almost an expressive minimalism, where what you're trying to do is have a very visible functionality and reduce visual noise," Dixon told Dezeen.
In this video produced by Dezeen for Magis, industrial designer Stefan Diez explained how he created a user-friendly sofa made from recycled plastic.
As well as using sustainable materials, the sofa was designed to be easily re-assembled, repaired and replaced. The modular style allows owners to configure the sofa in endless formations.
Holcim CEO Jan Jenisch described the construction process behind a new 3D-printed concrete bridge in this video produced by Dezeen.
The project, titled Striatus, was a collaboration between Block Research Group, the Computation and Design Group at Zaha Hadid Architects and 3D printing specialists incremental3D. It aims to demonstrate how concrete, a typically carbon-heavy material, can be used in more sustainable ways.
