Ecological Action Lab (EAL) experiments with nose-to-tail practices, novel materials, and the reimagining of the function of objects. Current projects include explorations into architecture and waste with potato starch, manure, sheet metal, and wood.

EAL is directed by Caroline O'Donnell, the Edgar A. Tafel Associate Professor of Architecture & Department Chair at College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

 

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chan done edible

Photo by: Tõnu Tunnel

Featured Project - 2022

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chan done edible

Photo by: Tõnu Tunnel

The Friendship WC (water chandelier)

Ecological Action Lab's installation for the 6th Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB2022) visualizes water-waste and our throw-away culture.

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About

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relationship wire black and white drawing

Statement 

Ecological practices engage in relationships and networks rather than objects. Building on Timothy Morton’s proposal that “No being, construct, or object can exist independently from the ecological entanglement” the lab seeks to understand, document, and produce hidden relationships in design: zooming in and out from the urban scale, to the architectural, to the material component, for example: relationships between cities or buildings and climate, between buildings and their material sources, between artificial and natural systems.

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relationship wire black and white drawing

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werewolf bookcover full

Featured Book - 2022

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werewolf bookcover full

Werewolf: The Architecture of Lunacy, Shapeshifting, and Material Metamorphosis

As climate, culture, and technology evolve and become increasingly unpredictable, architecture’s stasis becomes more incongruous. Werewolf explores an emerging but under-investigated branch of architecture that embraces the transformation of form, performance, and the responsiveness to environments and context. These ideas are studied through architectural precedents and framed by critical essays by Jesse Reiser, Greg Lynn, Jimenez Lai, Spyros Papapetros, Kari Weil, as well as the editors.
 

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Recent News

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COD is named chair of architecture at Cornell

June 25, 2021

O'Donnell begins her appointment as chair of the Department of Architecture on July 1.

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Partners

Contact

Address

Ecological Action Lab (EAL)
Department of Architecture
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

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