Mae-ling Lokko (1987, KSA) is an architectural scientist and building technology researcher from Ghana and the Philippines, whose work centers on the upcycling of agrowaste and biopolymer materials into high-performance, clean-building material systems for humidity control, indoor air-quality remediation and water-quality control applications. As an Assistant Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and founder of Willow Technologies, her research aims to codevelop new upcycling business models between the Global North and South, and to evolve material life cycle design criteria to meet generative justice criteria. Lokko’s recent projects has exhibited globally at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2019); Radialsystem, Berlin (2019); Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2019); Luma Foundation, Arles (2019); 4th Istanbul Design Biennial (2018); Rhode Island School of Design (2018); Royal Institute of British Architects-North as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2018 and at the Mmofra Foundation, Accra (2017-present).
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Gustavo Crembil is an Argentinean architect whose practice draws from the fields of design, architecture, craft, performance, and activism. A former Fulbright scholar, among his artist-in-residence appointments are UCLA’s Hypermedia Studio, European Ceramic Work Centre, Cranbrook Academy of Art and Creative Glass Center of America (Wheaton Arts, NJ). His individual and collaborative work has been exhibited at Museum of Modern Art (2204, New York), Dutch Design Week (2009, Eindhoven), PS1 MoMA (2019. NYC), Acadia (2011, Calgary), RE-New Festival (2013, Copenhagen), Transitio_MX (2013, Mexico), Disruption / ISEA (2015, Vancouver), Bienal Sur (Buenos Aires, 2017) and Studio X / Istanbul Design Biennial (2018). He was a founding partner of THEM: Lynch + Crembil, a practice recognized as an emergent architectural voice by the Museum of Modern Art and by ACSA/JAE for their ‘design as scholarship’ work. Among his current research interest are contemporary craft, informal urbanism, adaptive re-use and ‘mestizo’ technologies. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture. Lives and works in Troy, NY.