Joseph Dahmen is the Chair of the Bachelor of Design in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urbanism (BDes) program. He teaches design studios and courses on emergent ecological materials in BDes and the graduate programs in Architecture and Landscape Architecture programs.
Professor Dahmen’s current research and entrepreneurial activities focus on architectural applications of mycelium and other engineered living materials. These emergent materials have the potential to reduce or reverse the embodied impacts of architectural materials, building positive relationships with local ecosystems throughout the entire life cycle of architecture. His approach is informed that the premise that the design of material processes leads to architectural insights and vice versa.
Dahmen is the director of the Biogenic Architecture Lab (https://www.biogenicarch.ca/), an interdisciplinary research group he founded at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in 2021, and co-founder of Mycofoundry, a startup company developing commercial applications of mycelium biocomposites. He is a founding member of the Microbial Cell Systems for Sustainable Living (MCELLS) research excellence cluster at UBC, a co-director of the Building and Construction Research Pillar at the UBC Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute, and a member of the UBC BioProducts Institute. His research has been supported by the Tri-Agency in Canada, Natural Resources Canada, as well as the National Science Foundation in the United States and other sources. His research and creative work has been published in leading scholarly journals and his creative work has been featured in Canadian Architect, the CBC, Dwell, the Globe and Mail, Architizer, Fast Company, and the Financial Post. He lectures frequently on his research and creative projects.
Dahmen has a background in alkali-activated clay masonry and rammed earth and has consulted on sustainable design and construction globally. Prior to joining the faculty at SALA, he co-founded two startup companies: Watershed Materials, a startup in the San Franscisco Bay area that used produced ecological replacements for cement-based building materials, and Bodega Algae, an advanced biofuels startup that was a finalist on the MIT 100K Competition.
Education
M.Arch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BA (Hons), Wesleyan University
Links
Selected publications
Lin, Nicholas; Taghizadehmakoei, Alireza; Polovina, Lorena; McLean, Isobel; Santana-Martinez, Juan; Naese, Chloe; Moraes, Christopher; Hallam, Steve; Dahmen, Joseph. “3D Bioprinting of Food Grade Hydrogel Infused with Living Pleurotus ostreatus Mycelium in Non-Sterile Conditions”. ACS Applied Bio Materials. Accepted. Accepted March 24 2024. Expected publication April 10, 2024. DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.4c000*
Umubyeyi, Carene, Karissa Wenger, Joseph Dahmen, and John Ochsendorf. 2023. “Durability of Unstabilized Rammed Earth in Temperate Climates: A Long Term Study.” Construction and Building Materials 409 (October): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.*
Dahmen, Joseph, Jens von Bergmann, and Misha Das. 2018. “Teardown Index: Impact of property values on carbon dioxide emissions of single family housing in Vancouver.” Energy & Buildings 170 (March): 95-106.*
Dahmen, Joseph, and Amber Frid Jimenez. 2018. “They Grow Without Us: Mycelium architecture and ecologies of practice.” A/R/P/A Journal (online), Issue 05: Conflicts of Interest (May). http://www.arpajournal.net/.
Dahmen, Joseph, Juchan Kim, and Claudianne Ouellet-Plamondon. 2017. “Life cycle assessment of emergent masonry blocks.” Journal of Cleaner Production 171 (October): 1622-1637.*
Dahmen, Joseph. 2017. “Soft Futures: Mushrooms and regenerative design.” Journal of Architectural Education 71, no. 1 (February): 57-64.*
Dahmen, Joseph. 2016. “Soft Matters: Responsive Architectural Operations.” Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research 14, no. 1-2 (June): 113-125.