Lichi Hsu
Many human-made objects and surfaces appear solid and complete, yet often function as ecologically inactive boundaries offering little support for non-human species. In contrast, tree bark operates as an inhabitable interface shaped through entanglements among climate, material conditions, and living organisms.
Would you design differently if humans weren’t the only client?
In Encoded Skin, we ask how bark morphology and materiality can be translated into functional surfaces for more-than-human cohabitation. Adopting a research-through-design approach, we combined situated observation, microclimate sensing, bark analysis, parametric translation, and bio-material fabrication as a connected workflow. Within this process, bark morphology was analysed through crack density, crack depth, and bark thickness, and translated into fabrication variables through a modified extrusion system.
The resulting artefacts are developed as encoded skins, re-expressing bark differences through machine logic and material deposition. In this way, we show that machine-printed surfaces can operate not as isolated design objects, but as ecological interfaces that support inhabitation and more-than-human relations.
