Welcome to the first episode of Firereak, the podcast from Design for Wildfire school. In this inaugural conversation, Design for Wildfire school founder Dr. Melissa Sterry joins artist and former wildland firefighter Avi Farber to explore wildfire as design process, regenerative catalyst, and systemic force. Drawing on research, ceramics, ecology, and lived experience with fire, they discuss how working with wildfire can reshape architecture, landscapes, and creative practice. New episodes featuring disciplines will be released monthly, subscribe for updates.
ABOUT MELISSA STERRY
Melissa Sterry’s research explores how the biochemistries, behaviours, structures, and ecologies of fire-adapted species can inform resilient and regenerative architectural, urban, and landscape design, planning, and policy. Her work synthesises knowledge from fields including fire ecology - and the wider fire sciences, bio-inspired design, engineering, materials, and systems theory, advancing biomimetics from individual organisms to whole ecosystems - ecomimesis.
Supported by her wider research into building resilience to major meteorological geological, and ecological disruptions, this systems-led methodology proposes novel adaptive material and information systems that mimic the dynamics of pyrophytic (fire-adapted) flora and fauna. Designed to align with the severity, frequency, and behaviour of local fire regimes, these innovations present possibilities for architecture, urban design, planning, and policymaking at a time when the risks posed by wildfires to those living and working in the WUI are rising rapidly.
ABOUT AVI FARBER
Avi Farber’s work emerges with fire—both in the flame as it flows over clay in the wood kiln and in the spirit of a wildfire as its memory is recorded on his land-based art panels. Years of watching fires move through mountains while working as a wildland firefighter have shaped his approach to ceramics, where landscapes, clay, and fire become active collaborators. This is a ceramic practice that takes place in and with the landscape.
Farber received his Master of Interdisciplinary Design (MDes) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a BA in Philosophy from Bates College. His love for mud began in his mom’s studio in Santa Fe, NM, where, as a child, he would press clay against his face, using his own head as a slump mold to make colorful masks. He now holds clay as a storyteller—a vessel that carries collective meanings, records reflections, and offers a space to reimagine our own beliefs. His work is represented by Form & Concept, G2 Gallery, and has been supported by residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation, the University of California Santa Barbara, the Clay Studio of Missoula, and the Material Matters Lab.
Selection of images of Avi Farber’s work
Point of clarification from Dr. Sterry - she used the term when she was a little girl when referencing watching wildfire in the opening section, but girl would have been more apt.
