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ISSN 2309-0103 www.archidoct.net
Vol. 7 (2) / February 2020
biotechnology and synthetic biology. Moreover, by focusing on the creation of biohybrid artifacts, based on the coupling of organic mat- ter or living engineered organisms with artificial supports, we can overcome the excessive formalism of biomimicry or bioinspiration.
Although recognizing a considerable value to biomimetic experi- ments, they in fact take nature as an inspiration and mentor (Benyus, 1997) but by keeping it ontologically separated from the artificial do- main they also reinforce a Cartesian dualism. The translation of logics of natural behaviour and morphogenesis into digital realm in these cases is an abstraction, in order to outlines a bio-inspired or biomi- metic design process 4.
We should rather put the emphasis on co-construction principles: we need to replace the ideal of nature as a model to be simply emulated, in order to start using it as a co-worker in design strategies. Assum- ing nature as an active contributor within architectural processes, we stress the fact that design outputs are results of a co-evolution.
According to Neri Oxman, we should in fact look at the technology of nature in order to open design strategies to a neomaterialist style, based on the integration between organic (“natural” or engineered) and inorganic materials.
The integration of the bio-logic leads to significantly changes in how to design the architectural envelope or in what construction and pro- duction methods to use. Furthermore, principles of growth, self-or- ganization, self-repair or other biological principles often associated to architecture metaphorically, in this way can be applied effectively, thanks to the presence of actual living matter. In one of the recent projects with the Mediated Matter research group she founded at the MIT in Boston, Oxman used melanin as substance to represent a “universal pigment” found indiscriminately in human and also other living beings. It acts as a crucial technological system in providing protection from ultraviolet radiation, along with other important functions linked to biological survival, like mechanical protection, energy harvesting, cell growth or thermal regulation.
The installation “Totems” (figure 3) aims to investigate the possibil- ity to intersect culture and nature by questioning this dichotomy through designers’ ability to engineer melanin’s expressions within and across species. The pigment used for the biological totem is in fact synthetized hybridizing an enzyme from a mushroom, called tyrosinase, and protein building block L-tyrosine, which can be ex- tracted from bird feathers and cuttlefish. The manipulated genes for melanin production is then introduced into Escherichia coli, abling this bacterial species to express the gene itself and to change col-
4. Chang, J. (2014) “Hy- per-Morphology: Experi- mentations with Bio-inspired Design Processes for Adap- tive Spatial Re-use” in Var- douli T., Voyatzaki M. (eds) ar- chi-DOCT vol. 2(1)/ July 2014: 50-60.
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Architecture in a Petri dish: co-programming Meta-Life in design through biointegration and synthetic biology
Selenia Marinelli