ABSTRACT
Wolf Hilbertz, a pioneer in building with unusual natural materials that grow themselves (what he termed “cybertecture”), tirelessly visited islands all around the world, seeking ways to save them from the impacts of global climate change. Wolf was born in 1938, and, after a childhood as a refugee, grew up in Detmold, Germany. Leaving high school before graduating to work as a laborer, he quickly realized he was wasting his time and enrolled in architecture at the Hochschule fur Kunste (College of Arts) in Berlin. Interested in novel materials, he submitted a thesis on building with plastic, which was immediately rejected on grounds that no one had heard of such an outrageous thing.
