2025 Internship Project Overview

This project explored wood’s self-bending properties in order to design and construct a fully biodegradable habitat to support insect biodiversity in Princeton’s student garden. Using the concept of animal-informed infrastructure, the design mimics the ecological role of veteran trees, whose decay is crucial in promoting biodiversity. The team combined ecological research with material testing, studying insect habitat preferences and analyzing both natural and man-made structures. Experiments on different raw greenwood species examined how moisture content, grain orientation and material dimensions influence deformation and decay. These findings were then used to inform a design logic that integrated these natural behaviors into a structure that supports both ecological and human interaction. The final prototype—a curved, foldable, sheet-like form—creates habitat niches while offering space for observation. Locally sourced greenwood from a small lumber mill supported a sustainable, circular approach. This model prototypes a replicable methodology for biodiverse, sustainable urban planning where human and non-human species coexist.

This internship is connected to the HMEI Biodiversity Grand Challenges project, “Building for Biodiversity: Animal-informed Planning and Design.”

ORGANIZATION/RESEARCH GROUP

Form Finding Lab, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University

LOCATION

Princeton, New Jersey

 

Interns

Tom Billington ’26
Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Minor(s): Architecture and Engineering, Urban Studies
"This experience deepened my interest in research that links architecture, ecology, and infrastructure. I found it especially rewarding to see how ecological processes and material responsiveness could be integrated into architectural strategies, combining technical analysis with creative problem-solving."
Julianne Somar ’26
Major: Architecture
Minor(s): Environmental Studies, Urban Studies
"I was able to engage with the full scope of research, from precedent studies to material experiments. Results informed our design and hands-on fabrication. This experience opened my eyes to career possibilities involving research I would not have considered otherwise."

Click to view the end-of-project presentation

 

Sigrid Adriaenssens
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Mentors

  • Amir Mahdiyar, Associate Research Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Ruta Stankeviciute, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Civil and Environmental Engineering