virtual
pop-up
nomadic
virtual pop-up nomadic
Ideation
Research
Incubation
Ideation Research Incubation
Ultra Resilientiam, In Sentientiam
Beyond Resilience, Into Sentience
Designing beyond resilience…
An experimental lab forging architecture, technology, and ecological futures at the frontier of planetary change.
A hybrid of virtual research studio meets nomadic field laboratory, the Firescape Lab™ is the experimental arm of the Design for Wildfire school. Together with the school, it advances next‑generation concepts for nature-inspired living with wildfire, drawing on a rich transdisciplinary ecosystem aligned with the Panarchic Codex® vision.
At Firescape Lab™, we partner with world‑leading experts in fire ecology, fire engineering, materials science, ICT, architecture, urban design, planning, policy, health, and more. Our projects span speculative bio-inspired architectural prototypes; biomimetic sensing, computing and other information technologies; biomaterial innovation; digital simulation and experimental modelling; and other research works situated at the interface of living and non-living biotic, abiotic, and human systems in and beyond the fire-prone places of the world. These collaborations foster a new frontier in wildfire praxis that draws on fire‑adapted ecological systems to shape built environments that go beyond resilience - and into sentience.
Led by Melissa Sterry and Gustavo Rincon, Firescape Lab™ is at once incubator, testing ground, and vision generator. It cultivates emergent potentialities and possible futures for climate adaptation through design, rooted in ecological literacy, technical innovation, and cross‑sector collaboration. Our lab sits within the broader movement to unify architecture, planning, technological innovation, and Earth systems thinking in response to escalating wildfire risks - creating works that are built to sense and designed to evolve.
Programming unfolds across two modes:
Virtual Lab & Digital Studio
Purpose built platform hosting expert-led provocations, workshops, design sprints, and other local, regional, and global collaborative endeavours. Designed to converge the knowledge, skills, and ideas of our community of partners and supporters globally.
Pop‑up in Vitro & in Natura Labs
From wildfire‑prone landscapes to wildland- urban‑interface settings, our nomadic laboratory invites hands‑on research, immersive design experimentation, live fabrication, and community engagement. These field sites bring together architects, engineers, ecologists, policy‑makers, and local stakeholders to co‑design real‑world resilience strategies rooted in places and their fire regimes.
Explore reimagining human environments not as fire‑averse, but as fire‑responsive - aligned with natural fire cycles, rooted in resilience, and automously regenerative.
We welcome visionary collaborators. Whether you're a researcher, designer, technologist, policymaker, institution, or supporter ready to shape fire-responsive futures, Firescape Lab™ invites you to co-create with us. Together, we can push the boundaries of what architecture, ecology, and intelligence can become in a fire-shaped world. If you're working at the edge of innovation, let’s build something that not only survives, but thinks, senses, and evolves.
→ Connect with us and explore collaboration opportunities.