This May, Daria Bychkova, a IAAC alumnus and founder of the practice Chekharda based in Moscow, Russia spent time with MAEB at Valldaura Labs to share her experience about sourcing, designing and building timber structures to create playful, interactive architecture.Daria focuses her design efforts and projects on how to create a dialogue between children, their parents and nature, using structures that are developed not only from trees, but from whole trees that have not been cut, transformed or treated. These values align directly with the approach of the Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings, as Chekharda’s work integrates digital tools and advanced design strategies with ecologically-friendly, playful architecture.