Material Archi-Techtonic Research (MATR) Lab

Daekwon Park, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
Syracuse University

The Material Archi-Techtonic Research Lab (MATR) is an interdisciplinary Syracuse School of Architecture research group directed by Daekwon Park. Located at the Syracuse Center of Excellence, the group focuses on the intersection between design, material science and environmental engineering.

There are three key ongoing research projects at MATR LAB. The Adaptive Thermal Skin research develops tunable building skins that can alternate between a thermal insulator and a heat exchanger (i.e. dynamic insulation) based on its thermal environment. The Topo-joint research investigates a topology optimization framework integrating 3d printed non-conventional building materials for creating highly customized joints and connections for building applications. Lastly, the Architectured Soil researchexplores the design of 3-dimensionally structured soil-based materials (e.g. clay, sand, gypsum, and geopolymers) for structural, hygrothermal and acoustical performance augmentation.