Under the EU nature conservation policy Natura 2000, Denmark must expand protected natural areas from around 10% to 30% by 2030. While efforts to safeguard so-called “pristine” nature and expand habitats for non-human species are necessary, they largely rely on a spatial separation between humans and nature.
This division raises a critical question: does isolating “pristine” nature risk weakening our sensorial awareness of the relationships humans and non-humans already form in everyday life? From this concern, we understand all spaces as fields shaped by dense human and non-human entanglements. JAM Kinship seeks to expand architecture’s role—and its aesthetic potential—within these shared conditions.
Performative Ecology: design from ecology
For JAM Kinship, entanglement is not an abstract idea but a spatial condition shaped by overlapping social use, institutional governance, and ecological processes. Space is formed through the interaction of multiple actors, while architectural and artistic interventions influence its material, formal, and perceptual qualities.
At the same time, biological processes beyond human control, such as microbial activity or heat from decomposition, constitute what we describe as performative ecology. This concept emphasizes ecological change as unpredictable and unfolding over time, resonating with the notion of the feral described by The Mushroom at the End of the World. Often operating beyond direct human perception, these processes are central to how JAM Kinship analyzes and designs space
Design Coexistence with Scentific Research
Biodiversity describes the variety of life at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels, but in architectural practice it is often reduced to representational metaphors. JAM Kinship approaches biodiversity as a spatially operative condition, translating biological knowledge into architectural thinking through scientific research. Our work is grounded in interdisciplinary methods, including interviews with biologists, ecologists, and institutional actors, as well as the close reading of scientific data and field-based observation.
Rather than applying biological concepts illustratively, we treat them as analytical tools that inform spatial organization, material choice, and temporal design strategies. Through this research-driven approach, architecture becomes a medium for engaging with biodiversity not as an abstract value, but as a lived, evolving condition shaped by human and non-human interactions.
Design Coexistence with Time
JAM Kinship designs conditions for the coexistence of humans and other species over time, with seasonality as a central spatial driver. Variations in temperature, humidity, and light not only shape human activities in urban nature, but also determine critical life cycles for plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms.
Rather than treating seasons as a background or aesthetic theme, we understand them as an active ecological framework that structures use, occupation, and transformation of space. By designing for seasonal shifts, architecture becomes a mediator between human rhythms and non-human temporalities, enabling diverse forms of multispecies activity to emerge and overlap throughout the year.