Made by members of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), Woven Breathing Façade: Hygroscopic Responsive Textile Architecture transforms wood into a living textile. The structure, which is inspired by traditional basket weaving techniques harnesses the hygroscopic properties of wood – its ability to absorb moisture – to create a self-regulating system which passively responds to heat, humidity, and rainfall.
Without electricity or mechanical components, its woven elements expand and contract with atmospheric shifts, opening to ventilate, closing to protect, and continually negotiating with the surrounding climate.
Created by HBBE researchers Ye Sul E. Cho, Dr Jane Scott and Professor Ben Bridgens as part of the Leverhulme Trust funded RESPIRE Project, it will go on show at the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale: Architectures for an Overheated Planet this month.
Professor Bridgens said: “At a time of climate extremes and ecological urgency, Woven Breathing Façade offers an alternative vision for the built environment. Rather than sealed, isolated systems dependent on energy-intensive infrastructures, it imagines buildings as porous membranes—sensitive, adaptive, and alive.
“This bio-inspired approach proposes a radical shift in how we design and inhabit space: an architecture that does not impose control, but instead listens, senses, and evolves in resonance with the rhythms of its environment.
“Extremos , the14^th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale, provides an opportunity for us to share our research with local architects and researchers in São Paulo and build new collaborations for regenerative architecture research”.
Over the course of the biennale, the installation will remain in motion. Subtle shifts in temperature, humidity, and even the presence of visitors will activate the façade, turning it into a slow performance of coexistence with natural forces
The 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale: Architectures for an Overheated Planet takes place from 18 September to 19 October , 2025 at Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo.
The HBBE is a collaborative research hub which aims to create built environments which are life-sustaining and sustained by life. It is joint partnership between Newcastle and Northumbria Universities and was established in 2019 with an £8M grant from Research England.