A new exhibition in New York puts architecture students' answer to the housing crisis on display: small backyard homes built almost entirely from plants, earth and wood. "The New ADU: Beyond Petroleum," on view in the ground-floor gallery of 72 5th Avenue through October 31, presents prototypes designed and physically constructed by Master of Architecture students at Parsons School of Design.

The work comes out of Parsons' long-running Design Workshop, a spring studio that has students design and build full-scale structures in collaboration with outside partners. This year's course, taught by David J. Lewis and Dr. Sharon E. Sutton, challenged each student team to design a complete accessory dwelling unit using just one of three biogenic material families: fiber, mineral or timber. The constraint forced them to reckon with the real logistics of sustainable construction, from transport and local availability to disassembly and labor.

The exhibition is deliberately framed as an alternative to the petroleum- and plastic-heavy building practices that dominate the industry. Organized with the university's Healthy Materials Lab and supported by the Durst Family Foundation, the project also connects to New York City's "City of Yes for Housing Opportunity" zoning reform, under which accessory dwelling units are projected to account for about 30% of the city's anticipated new housing. Student Michael Wilson, M.Arch '27, described learning that sustainability is not one easy decision but dozens of difficult ones, made on the ground while coordinating material deliveries and climbing ladders to set full-scale pieces in place.

Founded in 1998, the Design Workshop emphasizes collaborative problem-solving around environmental challenges, particularly as they affect disenfranchised communities. This year's edition evaluates small structures through both quantitative and qualitative measures, laying groundwork for scaling biogenic buildings in the years ahead.