Jenny E. Sabin is an American architect, designer, and educator known for her work at the intersection of architecture, computation, and biomaterials. She integrates digital fabrication, responsive materials, and bio-inspired design into her architectural practice and runs an experimental architecture studio, Jenny Sabin Studio, based in Ithaca, NY. In this interview with Louisiana Channel, she shares her personal journey from artist to scientist, explains how biological and material systems can be applied at an architectural scale, and discusses her teaching and research roles at Cornell University. She elaborates on her interest in bringing people together through new strategies for responsive and adaptive architecture. In her view, the connections between the digital, the physical, and the biological define a paradigm shift in the evolution of architecture, converging with other realms of physical experience to create a more interconnected future.
So, one of the fundamental questions that drive all of our collaborative work with scientists, including cell and molecular biologists, material scientists, mechanical engineers, physicists, mathematicians, plant biologists, and beyond, is to look at how buildings and their integrated material systems may behave more like organisms do, interacting and responding and adapting to their natural environments.
Jenny Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and the inaugural Chair of the Department of Design Tech at Cornell AAP, where she established a research degree in Matter Design Computation. She is the principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, Director of the Sabin Design Lab, and co-founder of the Sabin+Jones LabStudio with biologist Peter Lloyd Jones. Holding degrees in ceramics and interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Washington and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, Sabin has received numerous accolades, including a Pew Fellowship (2010), the Architectural League Prize (2014), and Architectural Record's Innovator in Design Award (2016). Her work has been exhibited globally, including at FRAC Centre, the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. She authored LabStudio: Design Research Between Architecture and Biology (2017) and won MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program with Lumen (2017).
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How Might Buildings and Their Integrated Materials Systems Behave Like Organisms? In Conversation With Jenny E. SabinLumen is an immersive installation that evolves throughout the day. Made of responsive tubular structures in a lightweight knitted fabric, it features a canopy of recycled, photo-luminescent, and solar-active textiles that absorb, collect, and emit light. A misting system responds to visitors' proximity, activating fabric stalactites that create a refreshing microclimate. Inspired by collective levity, play, and interaction, Lumen's multisensory environment transforms throughout the day and night, adapting to the densities of bodies, heat, and sunlight. During the interview, Sabin states that the materiality of the project is incomplete without engagement and interaction, describing it as "an architecture that's much more informal and lateral and situated in its context."
She expresses similar ideas regarding PolyForm, another responsive architecture project. PolyForm is a permanent public installation consisting of four perforated, crystalline metal forms framing a high-traffic thoroughfare on the Cornell University campus. For Sabin, the project raises fundamental questions about how buildings can behave more like organisms, responding and adapting to their environments. This reflection informs broader discussions on climate change, emphasizing the need for architecture to adopt a more responsive and integrated model to enhance resilience. PolyForm serves as an architectural prototype, demonstrating systems that could be scaled toward more permanent structures. As Sabin puts it, "It's not sculpture. It's design. It's an architectural prototype for the future."
Architects are terrible at seeing the value of what we have to offer. And design is elusive, but it is a skill, and it is taught, and it takes time to hone. And I think we're now at a point where we are realizing the value of design and others are realizing the value of design. [...] The opportunity for collaboration across disciplines has always been there, but I think there are radical new approaches happening that are so exciting where the role of the architect maybe isn't just about buildings, but maybe it's about working on cancer biology. Maybe it's about working on entirely new material systems that can become adaptive building skins. And I think that's not only the future, it's the now.
Louisiana Channel is a series of video interviews on art, literature, architecture, design, and music produced by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Other representatives from the field of architecture include Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo, who explores public space design and the role of preexisting elements in spatial transformation. Similarly, ecoLogic Studio discusses a new approach to architecture that examines the relationship between nature and urban design. Renowned architects such as Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, and Rafael Moneo have also shared their perspectives on the interplay between architecture, society, and the physical environment.
