Substrate is an experimental project designed and fabricated by Kieran Renfrow and Yasmeen Saab. The project proposes a low-cost, sustainable, adaptable, moveable architectural system that provides resources, shelter, and programs to users and communities — allowing them to introduce these said elements that would be either impossible or difficult to attain otherwise. This system is based on a rulebook: being transportable, multi-functional, collapsible, amorphous, ubiquitous, accessible, sustainable, biodegradable, and arbitrary in nature so that it could highlight vernacular in the communities. The project explores the system’s adaptability in three test cities: Tokyo, Baghdad, and Makoko. All three of these sites have unique characteristics that set them apart from one another. Rigorous material and anthropological research were conducted to ensure accessibility and distinctive qualities could transpire. Recycled plastics and fabrics, re-using objects found in daily life, using scrap materials like assorted woods, metals, cloth fibers, or even synthetic materials allow for the communities to fill the panels with woven designs/elements that tell a story of who they are.