VOID STUDIOS

Ten years since Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM)'s founding and the IPCC's decision to commission #SRCities, last week in Nairobi showed exactly what that decade of groundwork made possible. Local ambition became shared work: government, academia, business, finance, and civil society co-creating in the same room, under the same time pressure, toward the same report. We were pleased to participate in the #SRCities Second Order Draft expert review, which is coming out next year, and to contribute to what became the largest in-person review the report has seen. Being edited and challenged in real time, alongside more than a hundred reviewers, is exactly how a report of this weight earns its authority. Learning from local leaders across sub-Saharan Africa was the part of the week we'll carry forward longest. Adaptation priorities are not aspirations imported into these cities. They are already embedded in local governance, infrastructure planning, and finance mechanisms shaped by specific conditions on the ground, and hearing that knowledge articulated directly was a privilege. Held on African soil for the first time, UN-Habitat #Innovate4Cities was a generous and rigorous convening and a strong affirmation of what we've long argued in our own research: durable climate frameworks are built through this kind of collaboration, not around it. Grateful to UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) and everyone who made the week possible. More to follow as the SRCities process continues.

Our team is currently in Nairobi, at the UN-Habitat conference, where they are contributing to the IPCC expert review of the Special Report on Cities, building on the position we've been developing across SB64. Follow our work as this develops.

On our way to Nairobi! We look forward to see you at the UN-Habitat #Innovate4Cities conference

We are delighted to announce Jason Siah this year’s Void Studios Research and Regenerative Design award recipient. What’s impressive about his work isn’t just the outcome, it’s the thinking that shaped it. The research runs deep, the testing is rigorous, and he successfully integrated data and creativity instead of letting them work in separate lanes. But what really matters: he’s treated regenerative thinking as a framework for every decision. That’s the work that counts. Well done, Jason.

We’re pleased to have contributed to Draft 2.0 of the Culture Global Stocktake for Climate Action, released ahead of SB64 in Bonn. The updated draft strengthens recommendations for integrating cultural spatial knowledge into climate policy and implementation. We’re building from our work on biocultural conservation, recognising that native spatial intelligence, indigenous land stewardship, and traditional ecological knowledge are active agents in climate ambition, not artifacts to protect alongside it. Thank you Entertainment + Culture Pavilion for coordinating this essential work across the ecosystem. We look forward to SG64 in Bonn, and the road to COP31.

Rammed earth is not a material we are rediscovering. It is a construction system with centuries of ecological and structural intelligence, calibrated to climate, labour, and landscape. The question is not whether it belongs in contemporary practice, but how rigorously we bring it there. At Void Studios, our ongoing research into rammed earth structures examines exactly that: the conditions under which vernacular materials can re-enter architectural discourse not as reference or aesthetic, but as tested, evidence-based building knowledge. Vernacular traditions are not historical curiosities. They are repositories of environmental intelligence that took generations to accumulate and cannot be reconstructed once lost. Research is how we responsibly recover and extend that knowledge. We are in the process of documenting our findings, and full results will be published on our website. A genuine thank you to our team, whose rigour and commitment made this research possible — and to our client, whose trust created the conditions for the work to happen at all. Research of this kind requires both. More to follow.

Last week, Void Studios participated in the Questions 11 International Architecture Conference, presenting 'What Does the Equator Teach?' — a lecture exploring biocultural pedagogy through two projects situated on the equator line: Shimaka in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Mara Conservation Centre in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem in Kenya. One line, two projects, two pedagogies. The presentation examined how architecture can emerge from deep engagement with cultural and ecological intelligence already embedded within a place. Across both projects, the work asks what happens when architecture begins not with imposed solutions, but with listening, learning, and long-term relationships with communities and ecosystems. At the centre of the discussion was a position that continues to shape our practice: cultural and ecological preservation cannot be separated. Protecting languages, craft, land stewardship, biodiversity, and local knowledge systems is also climate action. Presenting these ideas in Romania carried particular significance for our studio. It opened an important conversation about the country’s own biocultural inheritance: its primaeval forests, vernacular traditions, local crafts, and fragile ecosystems that are increasingly under pressure from extractive development and placeless construction models. We are grateful to Technical University of Cluj Napoca ,Ordinul Arhitecților din România, speakers, students, and practitioners who contributed to such thoughtful and necessary discussions.

Most schools are designed as fixed objects. This one begins with a question: What if learning is shaped by the forest, not separated from it? We’re sharing Shimaka School, a project developed within the Ecuadorian Amazon in close collaboration with those who live, learn, and hold knowledge there - the Sapara community. This is less about building a school and more about rethinking what a school can be. This project is developed in collaboration with Naku Foundation and the Llanchama Cocha community. See the full project: https://lnkd.in/ebDdsnjd

Void Studios at ChangeNOW Paris 2026. Void Studios joined over 35,000 participants, policymakers, scientists, and practitioners at one of the world's leading sustainability summits. In this space, the conversations shaping the future of the built environment are happening in real time. We heard from Kate Raworth, whose Doughnut Economics framework continues to reframe how we think about growth, resource use, and the boundaries within which human activity must operate. And from Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Network International movement, whose work on imagination and community-led change sits close to the questions we ask every time we begin a project. These are not peripheral conversations for an architecture practice. They are central to it. Architecture is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions. The decisions made at the design stage — about materials, structure, programme, and land — have consequences that outlast most policy cycles. For Void Studios, participating in forums like ChangeNOW is not a gesture toward sustainability. It is how we stay honest about the scale of the problem we are working within, and accountable to the positions we hold in our work. The transition being discussed at summits like this one will not happen without the built environment. And the built environment will not change without architects who are present in those rooms. Thank you to the ChangeNOW team for bringing together a space where these conversations can happen with the urgency and honesty they deserve. #ChangeNOW #Architecture #SustainableDesign #VoidStudios #ClimateAction

Last year, Void Studios was invited by the Narok County Government to design the new International Airport Terminal Building in Narok, Kenya — a gateway to the Maasai Mara and one of East Africa's most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes. At the groundbreaking ceremony, President William Ruto commemorated the design — a recognition of what the project stands for beyond its programme. The terminal is designed around a single question: what does it mean for a building to tell the story of the land it sits on? The façade is clad in multi-coloured terracotta panels derived from the geometry of Maasai beading — casting shifting patterns of light and shade across the external skin throughout the day. The structure is built predominantly from rammed earth, using locally sourced soils that carry the red tones found naturally in the Narok landscape, the dominant colour in Maasai culture. Interior landscaping draws biodiversity directly into the terminal, grounding the functional space in the ecology of the region. A Maasai proverb anchors the project: 'Enkongu naipang'a engen' — clever is the eye that has travelled. The terminal is not only infrastructure, it is a threshold between cultures. Void Studios' appointment covers the architectural concept and design. → Full project: https://lnkd.in/eZcxSWm7 #NarokAirport #NarokInternationalAirport #Kenya #MaasaiMara #SustainableDesign #CulturalHeritage #VoidStudios