BENTU
LABORATORY
本土实验室


Material is the carrier of thoughts, exists in the material world, and helps to form the autonomy of the exterior and ideas, and endows the material with a special power to affect human behavior. 


How would we explore the perfection of human nature through materials in the increasingly fragmented and secular world?


Bentu’s searches for the material explore the roots and unearth the qualities in demand. Formally clean and straightforward, taking out all unnecessary component, that is, in fact, a return to functionality and pursuit for freedom. Behind the form and functionality, it lies the affection for the equality of all things. The raw material, technique, and culture in making things are regardless of their values. Where attention is paid, the value of mud would the same as diamond. Demanding something from anything matter in this world should be done with appreciation, it's not a matter of superiority, but suitability, either for a plant for a handful of earth, taking an experimental approach to explore the possibility of industrial production, and allow it to radiate in glory and spirit. 


Materials have their own souls. What we need to do is to think about them perseveringly. In contemporary context, to meet contemporary needs, to explore, adjust, and give it a contemporary temperament. A material can keep its vitality, not because of itself, but because of people who can give it vitality.


Material, a world without lies.

COAGULATION OF ALL THINGS
"Coagulation as a means; design as a medium; production as an aid". To reshape the waste material into its form and function, and to awaken the form regeneration in the physical sensory level.
The Metamorphosis of Mud: From the Collapse of Mulberry‑Fish Pond Systems to the Redemption of Circular Materials
  • Using Shunde fish‑pond sediment as a case study, it traces the complete transformation of local waste mud from ecological burden to viable circular building material
Modularity, Ruins, and Urban Shanshui: The Installational Potential of Concrete
  • Exploring the potential of modular concrete installations and the aesthetic construction of recycled waste materials
Inorganic Archive: Material Order & Regeneration
  • Taking the Inorganic Archive waste-regenerated cement-based material project as its research subject, it explores the exclusive aesthetic system of low-carbon inorganic materials
A Frigid Haven: Material Regeneration Practice of Mining and Metallurgical Solid Waste
  • Taking the mining and metallurgical waste regeneration project as a case study, it explores the material circulation of metallurgical residues
Local Generation
  • Based on the dialectical relationship between globalisation and locality, it systematically elaborates the theoretical logic and practical pathways for transforming industrial waste into sustainable design resources under the philosophy of Local Generation
Inorganic Growth: Regenerating Urban Village Memory
  • Focused on construction waste regeneration and digital fabrication in urban villages, it explores the reconstruction of inorganic materials, local colour chromatics and collective urban memory
Imprints and Homecoming: The Century-Long Everyday Life of Terrazzo
  • Using terrazzo as a case study, it explores the circular regeneration of stone waste, industrial pioneering and the reconstruction of everyday aesthetics
Flowing Stars: BENTU's Design Practice of Translucent Concrete
  • Examining cross-field applications of translucent concrete and the product-oriented reconstruction of material aesthetics
Inorganic Editing: Deeply Localised 3D‑Printed Public Furniture in Qingshan Village, Hangzhou
  • Taking 3D‑printed public furniture in Qingshan Village as a case study, it documents deeply localised practice integrating construction waste, traditional craft and digital fabrication
Material Transformation and the Narrative of Masks
  • Taking hot-pressed stools made from recycled masks as a case study, it explores the spiritual ethics of sustainable design that transcends material circulation.
  • 2020
Metal recasting
Being busy running around the collecting and distributing center of the processing industry in the Yangtze River Delta area and because of working on the accessories processing, we have a indepth contact with the practitioners in the aluminum processing industry.
Waste material recycling
Waste materials, as the residue at the end of production, also have new possibilities of recycling. It is also a cohesive reflection on the industrial production system.
Loss of Form: Remaking Material Ruins and Cultural Order in Chaozhou’s Ceramic Industry
  • Using Chaozhou waste ceramics as a case study, it documents the full transformation of traditional ceramic waste from industrial residue to contemporary circular material and culturally reflective design practice
The Second Mine: The Regenerative Value of Industrial Solid Waste and the Practice of Industrial Symbiosis
  • Using "The Second Mine" as a core metaphor, it articulates the value logic of industrial waste as a regenerative resource and the philosophy of industrial symbiosis
Forming: Material Archaeology & Daily Life of Plastic Waste
  • Taking the hot-pressed recycled plastic furniture project Forming as its research subject, it explores the material aesthetics of post-consumer plastic waste circular regeneration and the closed-loop local industrial ecosystem
Recycling Woven Plastic Bags: Material Regeneration of Agricultural Waste
  • Taking the hot-pressing regeneration project for discarded agricultural woven plastic sacks as a research sample, it explores the material narratives embodied by agricultural plastic waste
Shaping Plastic: Sustainable Design Practice of Plastic Regeneration
  • Using recycled‑plastic concrete as a case study, it explores the intrinsic connection between material circulation and humanistic care
Particles of Time: Rubber Regeneration and Experimental Design
  • Taking rubber regeneration as a case study, it examines experimental design and the transformative value of sustainable material regeneration
Metro SOIL
  • Documenting the technical pathways and humanistic reflections of the 2017 Guangzhou Metro excavated soil regeneration experiment
  • 2017
Originated from concrete
Simple things are hidden under simplicity. In the process of promoting world integration, there is an important material, cement, a simple and ancient material that spreads across the corners of the earth.
Inorganic Specimens: Material Regeneration of Shell Waste
  • Taking shell waste and self‑developed geopolymer technology as case studies, it explores the inherent relationship between biomineralisation heritage and specimen‑based aesthetics
Particles of Light: Dynamic Aesthetics and Sustainable Design of Fair-Faced Concrete Decorative Bricks
  • Centered on the R&D of light-and-shadow fair-faced concrete decorative bricks, it interprets the sustainable dynamic aesthetics of high-dosage industrial solid waste integrated with grazing-light shadow geometry
Fracture and Coalescence: Traces and Rebirth of Architectural Ceramic Waste
  • Taking architectural ceramic waste regeneration as a research sample, it explores the aesthetics of traces and the return of industrial solid waste to everyday life.
  • 2011
Surface Phenomena: The Material Aesthetics of Fair‑Faced Concrete Made from Industrial Solid Waste
  • Taking fair‑faced solid‑waste concrete decorative materials as research sample, it explores the value of the surface as a carrier of material truth and its practical realisation pathways
Dystopia: Capital, Mobility, and the Collapse of Ideals – A Slice of the City
  • Using the urban transformation of Huangbian Village in the Pearl River Delta as an observational sample, it dissects the humanistic logic behind the evolution from ideal utopia to real dystopia
Hardheadedness: The Paradox of Obsession
  • Exploring the paradox of obsessive perseverance and conviction through the material symbolism of concrete
Death Is No Farewell: An Experiment to Make Cemeteries Disappear
  • Taking funeral and burial material experiments as a research sample, it records how life ashes and inorganic cementitious materials transform from symbols of separation into carriers of enduring symbiosis
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