Biennale d’architecture et de paysage d’Île-de-France

Rob Dunn participated as an invited critic in the 2025 Île-de-France Architecture and Landscape Biennial, titled “4° Celsius Between You and Me”, held in Versailles from May 7 to July 13, 2025. His contribution is featured in the official exhibition catalog published by ACTAR, where he reflects on the aesthetic and social transformations of cities under climate change. Photo credit: Rafael Gamo.

Climate-Adapted Architectural Heritage

This collaborative project  brings together scientists, artists, architects, and cultural scholars to reimagine traditional architecture in the face of climate change. Using climate-analog modeling, the team forecasts how future climates will resemble those of other regions today, then adapts vernacular building styles to suit those conditions while preserving cultural identity. The project explores how heritage architecture can evolve to remain both functional and meaningful, even as environmental pressures mount. An exhibition planned for 2026, along with an interactive website and public programming, will invite global audiences to engage with climate-adapted design as both a creative and survival imperative.

Nature’s Chefs

In 2023, members of the Dunn lab and other scholars collaborated on a Bioscience publication about the various ways organisms prepare food. Artist Eleanor Quist Olson created a fantastic painting as a visual representation of the publication. The painting shows many of the plant and animal “chefs” discussed in the publication, from an alligator snapping turtle with its worm-like lingual lure to spiders exchanging specially prepared nuptial “gifts” as part of their courtship ritual. Check out more of Eleanor’s work here!

Artwork by Eleanor Quist Olson

Microbial Mother City

Daye Kim is a multidisciplinary designer based on Seoul and London. Daye gave a presentation for the Interdisciplinary Big Ideas seminar focused on an imaginative future where human communities develop a kin-like relationship with their collective microbes. Day’s presentation, and the discussion it inspired, influenced the development of “Microbial Mother City,” a speculative design project that reimagines the role of microbes and multi-species bonds in future cities.  Learn more about all of Daye’s fascinating work here!

Artwork by Daye Kim

The Center for Genomic Gastronomy

The Wildfire Loaf Project is an ongoing research project to taste-test and genetically sequence sourdough starters made from smoke-tainted wheat. The Dunn Lab is currently collaborating with the Center for Genomic Gastronomy in the ideation stages of this project.

Photograph by Lauren Nichols