Bex Browne
I am an architect currently based in Aarhus, Denmark, where I recently completed my master studies in the sustainability studio, Material Matters, at Aarhus School of Architecture.
Through my work I explore materials from landscape to built form, where the process driven projects aim to explore ways of designing in the midst of the climate crises. At a time where existing practices and material palettes should be critically challenged, the research based projects aspire to imagine alternative scenarios that consider entanglements across scales, times and perspectives as methods to discover ways of designing with responsibility and within ecological frameworks. This website acts as an archive of recent projects.
Bex.e.browne@icloud.com
InstagramPlan drawing by Bex Browne
01 Salty Bodies and Pickled Rhythms
Salty Bodies and Pickled Rhythms inserts itself in the fragile cultural context of the salt pan in Cervia and aims to read relationships between environmental, economic, social, historical and anthropogenic aspects. It proposes to respond to these relations with set of sensitive, plural and multi-focused interventions where the existing cultural landscape isn’t disrupted but supported by a pattern of objectives.
Read moreMaster Thesis
Sep 23 - Jan 24
Drawing to explore reed seasonalities and phytoremediation possibilities02 Root to the Roof
This project situates itself in an imagined scenario, where the rooftops of Aarhus become an artificial ecosystem. Reed plants grow in abundance in specially designed clay tiles, a variety of species reach this ecosystem through visible clay pipes, textured for critters to crawl up making the rooftop a predominantly non-human space. The rhizomes of the reeds provide space for a trans-species collaboration to take place between the plant, soil, water, bacteria, fungi and sun, resulting in the process of phytoremediation. The project aims to explore different points of view to make a possible situation plausible, where the human is not the central actor and must take responsibility for the non-human critters our existence depends upon.
Read moreSemester project
Sep 22 - Jun 23
Drawing investigating salt underground, in water and in the air across Tyholm03 Smyphony of Salt
This project explores how architecture can respond to its surrounding environment and existing natural weather systems over time. Working with the seasons and harsh weather conditions of Thyholm, Denmark, this research accumulates in a salt extraction museum crossing the boundary of land and water. The building explores the potential of salt and yarn, which transforms over time through the crystallisation and dissolving of salt, becoming a working part in the story the museum tells. The investigations aim to challenge the static, unadaptable spaces that we often experience in our built environment today.
Read moreSemester project
Feb 22 - Jun 22
Drawing to depict imperfections in new waste timber04 Inventory of Imperfections
This project is an investigation into imperfections and weaknesses from the scale of a singular material to an architectural space. Documenting, analysing, understanding, and extracting are the main actions to enable the designer to discover the individual characteristics and qualities of the imperfections before explorations into how small manipulations can result in the celebration of it. The imperfections become visual memories and the new can only exist through the strengthening of a weakness.
Read moreSemester Project
Sep 21 - Jan 22
Completed pavilion at CHART Art Fair, Image by Joakin Züger05 Elisa and the 11 Swans
Elisa and the 11 swans translates Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, The Wild Swans, into an architectural pavilion that aims to spark curiosity about the origins and stories of biomaterials in Denmark. Through the act of sharing stories about the origins and entanglements of materials within their natural, cultural, and economic landscapes we are more easily able to value the material itself and further understand the human impacts on these landscapes to ensure a more symbiotic and less exploitative relationship with nature.
Read moreCHART Art Fair
Summer 22
Photo of SubTERRARIUM event06 SubTERRARIUM
I was involved as a research assistant for this project, assisting with the design and fabrication of 3 ‘open terrariums’ for a conference at the Aarhus School of Architure, that discussed the impact and relationships of architecture with the soil through talks, performances and films. The 3 ‘open terrariums’ acted as seating for the event whilst also exploring regenerative agriucltural practices, methods of building with soil and visual representations of soil architecture.
Project leaders: Alicia Lazzaroni, Antonio Bernacchi, Carolina Dayer
Read moreResearch Assistant
Mar 24 - April 24
Photo of a kombucha scoby material test07 Material Explorations
Hands-on material exploration is an ongoing process for me as a way of approaching architecture. The act of ‘making with’ the materials enables a deeper insight into their properties, aesthetics and possible tangible outcomes.
Read moreExperiments
Ongoing