Tree Tech

Ümair Zia is a visionary architect and assistant professor at National College of Arts, Lahore- the oldest art school in Pakistan. He is the founder of Nature Tutor magazine and a member of the editorial board of ii International Journal of Interior Architecture and Spatial Design. Zia’s nature-inspired projects have been featured at multiple international forums including CTBUH, Urban SOS, Adaptable Futures and Arctic Perspective Initiative, and others. In 2020, Zia was admitted to the first cohort of the Design Science Studio (The Buckminster Fuller Institute + HabRitual), where he joined the Living Systems Collaboratory (Emergent Media Lab, University of California, Irvine). He is the founder of design blog, Nature Gadgets (naturegadget.com).Zia’s work has been recognized at Venice Art Biennale (2017), Arctic Perspective Initiative (2015), Council on Tall Buildings, and Urban Habitat (2011), as well as at several local and international platforms. He has contributed to multiple research publications including ii International Journal of Interior Architecture and Spatial Design, Pratt Journal of Architecture, and the Journal of Art, Architecture and Built Environment. Describing Tree Tech, Roxanne Shohadee, director of the Design Science Studio wrote, “...I cried. It was not only beautiful and delicate, but also deep, touching, profound.”Ümair Zia’s Tree Tech: 50 Lessons for Life offers fifty observations of the function of trees and how humans can learn from the elegant "technology" of the natural force keeping our planet alive. At a time where mounting environmental impacts are becoming increasingly visible around the world, this timely text offers a roadmap for societies and individuals to rethink structures such as hierarchy, education, resource use, and what it means to co-exist with a living, breathing world. A visual and personal journey, Tree Tech: 50 Lessons for Life is a thrilling and spiritual quest to understand the biomimicry and hidden ancient technologies of the trees.