Biography
Rachel Armstrong is a ZAP Professor of Design-Driven Construction for Regenerative Architecture at KU Leuven, Belgium, Former Vice Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, Culture and Creativity Knowledge and Innovation Community (EIT C&C), and a Senior TED Fellow. She is a pioneer of the emerging design-led research field of regenerative architecture that applies biological and origin of life principles to material practices that advance the next generation of sustainable interventions that can unite both the mineral and organic realms to generate positive environmental impacts. Her research vision has been formalized through the Living Architecture project (2016-2019) funded by Horizon Europe FET Open, the Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment (ALICE) (2019-2021) funded by an Innovation Award and currently the EIC Pathfinder Challenges project Microbial Hydroponics (Mi-Hy) project (2023-2027) that investigates carbon and nitrogen metabolism in next-generation hydroponic systems, and is part of the Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Management valorisation portfolio.