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ISSN 2309-0103 www.archidoct.net
Vol. 7 (2) / February 2020
Architecture in a Petri dish: co-programming Meta-Life in design through biointegration and synthetic
biology
Selenia Marinelli // Theories and Design at DiAP (Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto), Faculty of Architecture “Sapienza”, University of Rome
Abstract
In the current era, marked by the increasing concern about antropogenic climate change and environmental problems, biotechnology and synthetic biology can offer solutions to several present and future problems concerning biodiversity. In this pa- per, the notion of “meta” will be discussed to investigate the concept of meta-life as grey area between the animate and the inanimate, the natural and the engineered, the born and the built, in order to demonstrate how these entangled notions could be applied also as new design strategies. The advent of synbio and bio-information as tools for architecture could in fact drastically change the way we conceive build- ings as meta-living beings in ontological continuity with the biosphere.
Keywords
meta-life; synbio; biotech; bioart; ecosymbiotic architecture.
//
Essays