PICNIC Organic Design, Living Architecture

PICNIC

Organic Design

Living ArchitectureRachel Armstrong

TEDGlobal Fellow, Teaching Fellow, AVATAR groupThe Bartlett School of Architecture

[email protected]

Living Architecture

• New model of sustainable architectural practice that directly connects the built environment to nature

Architecture as Biosphere

• Living Architecture is part of the biosphere• Integrated through common chemical

language called metabolism • Metabolism connects living systems to the

environment

Metabolic Materials

• Materials that are capable of metabolism• These materials are ‘living’ and can be

thought of as Living Technology

Living Technology

• Possess some but not all of the properties of living systems

• Qualitatively different to 20th century technologies with which we are familiar

• Capable of growth, movement, sensitivity, repair, complex behaviour and even reproduction

Low Tech Biotech

• For practical purposes in the built environment, these materials need to be robust, safe, ubiquitous and inexpensive

Innovation by Design

• Use existing metabolic systems and materials to create the desired outcome

• ‘Cellular Gardening’

Growing Silicon Bone

Diatom factory Growing silicon bone that combines structural and semi-conductor propertiesCourtesy Shin Tseng

Innovation by Invention

• Low tech, chemical computers• Protocell technology: an example of Living

Technology• NO DNA• Based on the chemistry of oils• Programmable using inorganic chemistry• Can produce architectural outcomes

Protocell Technology

Protocell Cluster

Modification of Environment

Skin Shedding

Producing Solid Material

Protocell Pearl

Protocell Shell

Sustainably Reclaiming Venice

• Protocell technology programmed to move away from light and deposit limestone under the wood pile foundations of the historic city

• Generation of an artificial reef• New ecological niches for marine organisms

Protocell Technology

Protocell technology Programmed to create solid out of dissolved carbon dioxideCourtesy Christian Kerrigan

Protocell Photosensitivity

Protocell technology under wood piles underneath VeniceProgrammed to move away from light filled canals to darkened foundationsCourtesy Christian Kerrigan

Protocell Activation

Protocell technology petrifying foundationsProtocell technology forms solid materials by crystallization and accretionCourtesy Christian Kerrigan

Venetian Artificial Reef

Artificial Reef underneath VeniceSensitive to environmental variables and local marine ecologyCourtesy Christian Kerrigan

Summary

• It is possible to ‘solve’ climate change by addressing the underlying chemistry contributing to Global Warming

• Living Architecture is one way in which we can start to do this