Afshan Tanweer is an architect and design researcher, working across architecture and material science.
Afshan’s research explores how minerals recovered from waste streams might be cultivated into structural materials for architecture. Following her architectural education at the National College of Arts, Lahore, she graduated from the MArch in Bio-Integrated Design at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture. Her experience in architectural practice, alongside research and experimental fabrication at the Bio-ID Lab, informs an interdisciplinary approach to material innovation.
Working with silica-based scaffolds and controlled reactor systems, Afshan's residency will investigate how environmental and chemical conditions can be designed to encourage mineral deposition. The resulting materials will be assessed for their suitability for structural testing. She will examine how factors such as fluid flow, chemical composition and altering wetting and drying cycles influence mineral growth and its resulting material properties. By connecting resource recovery with construction, her research asks how waste-derived materials can contribute to circular thinking within architecture and the built environment.
