Various collaborations between Departments of Architecture, Material Sciences and Engineering, Arts, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, and Faculty of Health Sciences

Situated within the Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria, the Laboratory for the Sixth Industrial Revolution (6IR) is a visionary research initiative dedicated to rethinking our industrial future in the face of escalating ecological and social change. 

What world will we choose for our grandchildren? This pressing question demands a fundamental re-evaluation of our current industrial trajectory rooted in extractive, degenerative models that erode ecological and social potential. In a world foregrounding technological development that pursues the autonomous, artificial and virtual, the Sixth Industrial Revolution represents a cultural pivot: a profound shift in how we imagine the relationship between technology, humanity, and the living world. 

At the heart of the 6IR  is a belief in the generative potential of life itself. Nature is not a problem to solve, but a partner and guide, not a constraint, but the ultimate model for regenerative futures. This revolution moves us from extraction to regeneration, from control to participation, from isolation to symbiosis.

In the Laboratory for the 6IR we advance a new kind of industrial logic - circular, adaptive, bio-based, and ecologically entangled - designing futures where industry becomes a force for life-system health and ecological restoration. We envision a future where technology is ecologically embedded, industry nourishes rather than depletes, and innovation deepens our connection to Earth’s systems.