Living Cities Forum 2022: Mae-ling Lokko in conversation with Chris Bourke

Mae-ling Lokko is an educator, architectural scientist and biomaterials technology researcher from Ghana and the Philippines whose work centres on the upcycling of agrowaste and biopolymer materials. Her research integrates a broad range of criteria that questions contemporary material-value systems to evolve life cycle design to meet generative justice criteria. Chris Bourke, the Melbourne bureau chief for Bloomberg News, spoke with Mae-ling ahead of the Living Cities Forum 2022, which centres around the theme of ‘Material Flows.’ In this conversation, they discuss the potential material uses of coconut husks, interrogate the colonial narratives that inform the cultural barriers which inhibit the uptake of certain materials, and much more.