IaaC Bit 5.6.1

Implementing Advanced Knowledge

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5 .6.1 B.I/O.SMART

Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto

B.I/O.SMART

On the implications of biocomputation in architecture and urban desgin

“ The settlement, the human city, is natural. To recognize it is a natural science. To tend it is an art, analogous to horticulture. This cannot exist without knowledge of the plants, soil and water involved. The art of urban development requires knowledge of all living organisms in nature, of nonliving nature, the present state and the possibilities of technology” Frei Otto With this article the authors would like to articulate how processes of material computation may have a radical effect in the way we conceive contemporary cities.

On a scientific/technical level the study of these process of material computation enables designers to go beyond descriptive computation, typical of digital design; from the socio/cultural perspective the possibility to engage the evolving processes of living matter enables a deeper form of interaction with our surroundings; ultimately the potential is to turn users into designers, consumers into producers.

From this perspective we then want to claim a new centrality for the notion of gardening, as a design practice as well as modus operandi in the transformation of the urban environment. Gardening is now not only related to tending plants and vegetables, but, as prefigured by architect Frei Otto, to a more expanded field of dynamic material and digital processes which will redefine our cities and our urban landscapes (also see cyber-Gardening the City); as such gardening also acquires critical relevance in reframing our relationship to emergent digital design practices.

The material altorithm

In mathematics and computer science an algorithm is an effective method or procedure expressed as a finite list of logically defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms take in various inputs and after a series of transformations deliver an output; the relationship between input and output may not be deterministic or linear and may involve chance. This mathematical definition of algorithm, typically applied to machine calculus, can be recasted to encompass any process of material and biological computation.

Cover - IAAC Fabrication Ecologies 2012/2013 - Hemp Fibers Structure: Robotic Spraying - students: (Jean Akanish, Alexander Dolan, Vincent Huyghe) - tutors: Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto.

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Algorithms are traditionally conceived as ‘powerful problem solving machines’ and as such have been used throughout history in various forms; algorithms require computation and computational power to run; in the past material or analogue computation was used extensively. Such form of computation harvests the natural ability of materials (organic and non) to self-organize and “solve”, for instance, problems of structural stability by means of a process of analogue form finding; analogue computers were material assemblages able to multiply the effects of material computation

“...we want to claim a new centrality for the notion of gardening, as a design practice and as modus operandi in the transformation of the urban environment”

thus achieving sufficient problem solving performance. The scale of such computers was often large; in fact since the antiquity many buildings were conceived as architectural computing machines; a well known example are the so called “Nilometers” in Egypt; this beautifully ornamental structures were in fact large graduated tanks that, once connected by a complex network of pipelines to the rive Nile, were able to measure the extent of each years’ flood; such measure was then compared to a sort of statistic that would allow the calculation of the taxation rate to be imposed over the local farmers benefitting from the flooding. In good years, large flooding would make the ground more fertile and higher taxes could be imposed. In this example the Figure 7 - IAAC Fabrication Ecologies 2012/2013 - Hemp Fibers Structure: Robotic Spraying students: (Jean Akanish, Alexander Dolan, Vincent Huyghe) - tutors: Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto.

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river Nile’s topographic region, its network of infrastructural canals, the cultivated landscape and the “Nilometers”, where altogether operating as a large analogue computer, embedded within the material substratum of the “garden” that it was supposed to monitor and help cultivating.

The digital revolution has dramatically increased the power vs. size ratio of analogue computation; a computer as complex and large as the Nilometer with its tax calculation algorithm can now be reasonably well simulated by a 2kg laptop processor. This progression has disconnected material computation from the fabric of our built environment and of our urban landscape; the architecture of computation is now eluding the scales of architectural and urban design. The discipline of architectural composition and urban design has evolved independently from any practice of analogue computation or, in other words, of material organization. So even if it’s becoming possible to simulate complex organisms like our cities through the application of specifically customized algorithms, the main obstacle to their effective application to the design of our urban environment has been the need to overcome the conceptual difficulty of expressing urban and architectural design problems in the form of algorithmically solvable questions; or in other words to embed these algorithms in a coherent form of material organization.

Despite the raising expectation towards the application of algorithmic processes to design it is still necessary to overcome this conceptual shortcoming and move beyond descriptive computation; a first step might be the expansion of the conception of algorithms as mathematical entity with strong disciplinary connotations and an almost exclusive applicability to the logical formulations typical of the scientific and engineering domains.

French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, offers us some support by providing an extended meaning of the term machine beyond the mechanical paradigm and towards a larger “Machinic” framework. Such conceptual reframing can be adopted to expand the notion of algorithms as mere mathematical machines.

For Deleuze the notion of machine exceeds the technical realm and includes abstract generative mechanisms that can be recognized in any organic or inorganic being and that operate across multiple realms and at multiple scales.

A simple example used repeatedly by Deleuze and Guattari is the relationship between the wasp orchid and the Thynnie wasp; the orchid flower has evolved parts that resemble very closely the female wasp; the seduced wasp male tries to mate with the flower and by doing so it impollinates the plant; the two have evolved so inseparably that even their appearance has become similar despite being an insect and a plant; the wasp is inherently part of the plant so that it becomes very hard to draw a frame around its identity; however resisting to do so allows to conceptualize the pair as a larger ensemble or machine, and their coupling as the process of reproduction of the machine itself.

In similar fashion human beings can be defined as an assemblage of what Deleuze calls “desiring machines”, thousands of mechanisms that without us noticing are producing the desires that we do notice and that surface to the level of consciousness; a similar machinic framework can be recognized in the formation and evolution of inorganic assemblages like dunes and deserts; million of sorting mechanisms create coherent patterns of sand distribution that travel in space and time until final dissolution.

The most important aspect of Deleuze’s definition of machines, for our discourse, is that they cannot exist outside the “milieu” or the environment; in other words their definition is inextricably embedded in the environment within which they perform or are conceived: exactly like an animal and its habitat, or the Nilometer within the river Nile region, they form an inextricable “unit of survival”. Following this line of thought we propose an evolved notion of algorithm, referred to as the material algorithm, a computational machine whose definition and evolution is inextricably embedded into his “milieu”.

Two early examples of a pioneering application of an expanded notion of algorithmic machine are provided by engineer Le Ricolais, working with models of structural analysis and behavioral simulations of structures observed during collapse, and by Cybernetician Gordon Pask, who famously developed a series of artefacts, conceived in conversation with the surrounding environment as well as with the users, testing beds for his theories on second order cybernetics:

“...human beings can be defined as an assemblage of what Deleuze calls “desiring machines” 6

Le Ricolais suggests that matter, material, construction systems, structural configurations, space, and place comprise a continuous spectrum rather that isolated domains. Such an understanding provides a model for organizing forces and their effects that is communicative, reverberating across scales and regimes.

Pag. 110 – Reiser– Umemoto– Atlas of novel tectonics – New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006 It seems to me that the notion of machine that was current in the course of the Industrial Revolution – and which we might have inherited – is a notion, essentially, of a machine without goal, it had no goal ‘of’, it had a goal ‘for’.

And this gradually developed into the notion of machines with goals ‘of’, like Thermostats. Now we’ve got the notion of a machine with an underspecified goal, the system that evolves. This is a new notion, nothing like the notion of machines that was current in the Industrial Revolution, absolutely nothing like it. It is, if you like, a much more biological notion; maybe I’m wrong to call such a thing a machine; I gave that label to it because I like to realize things as artifacts, but you might not call the system a machine, you might call it something else.”

Gordon Pask quoted in Mary Catherine Bateson, Our Own Metaphor: A Personal Account of a Conference on the Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation, Alfred A Knopf (New York), 1972.

Coding as gardening

Material algorithms, as defined in the previous paragraph, posses a rather peculiar nature which makes coding specific to a certain milieu, being it the ecology of a landscape or an architectural material system. This peculiarity can be exemplified by comparing the methods of a bioengineer synthesizing artificial tissues in a lab with the one of a gardener reviving a patch of dried land; while both are running generative protocols, the first requires a perfectly controlled and refined testing ground for his procedures to acquire general applicability while the second needs to consider the unexpected fluctuation of the ecology of his garden.

The bioengineer, within the controlled setting of the lab, can trigger a series of reactions and morphogenetic processes and slowly grow coherent and therefore potentially functioning tissues; if all the variables are well controlled and managed the final outcome can reproduce with enough precision the results predicted by early computer simulations of specific scenarios of development; a little unexpected mistake or variation in the testing bed and the final results would become unpredictable, incoherent and often lose their applicability. The gardener, instead, operates within a very different framework; his testing bed is by definition very differentiated and

partially unpredictable in its daily or seasonal fluctuations; his operational protocols need to consider this fluctuations and differences in their formula; The resolution of this dichotomy is the core ambition of one of the authors’ best known project, the H.O.R.T.U.S series, the Urban Algae Folly and the related Regional Algae Farm proposal for the Swedish region of Osterlin. Interestingly the project’s concept, centered on the urban cultivation of micro-algal gardens, evolved in conversation with evolutionary biologist Catharine Legrand, from the university of Lund.

She described how difficult is to separate algae cells to extract valuable substance and nutrients and how much scientific research in algae bioengineering is focusing on this aspect; she then argued that although that was certainly a crucial issue a much larger agenda was overlooked by research, designing algal landscapes of considerable size and diversity that would thrive as part of what would call an extended milieu. Indeed she noted microalgae are everywhere but we do not know how to tend microalgae ecologies to turn them into productive gardens.

In the process of designing a new prototype of microalgal urban garden we then began noting that the gardener operates through a process of intensification of difference; his only chance to reconcile his desire of beautification and the natural expressivity of living processes resides in the movement, intended in its biological and physical sense; Gilles Clement suggests that the formalization of the garden becomes a process of formalized transmission of biological messages or, in our terms, of algorithmic coding; algorithms are for the gardener machines to breed biodiversity.

Differences in slope, insulation, soil moisture, etc. are registered and then exploited by the algorithm to promote the growth of different arboreal species; also the growth, being itself a variable and partially unpredictable process, needs to be read, assessed and then considered in the formulation of future actions, or in the future lines of the gardening code. The garden grows and beautification progresses in loops; each step generating more difference and local complexity that can be in turn recognized and bred; the management of this generative process is what makes the garden a potentially beautiful and healthy organism; in Clement’s words:

Reality is entirely contained within experience. Only. Without gardening there is no garden.

Pag. 66 – Clement, Gilles – Il giardiniere planetario – Milano: 22Publishing, 2008. Translation by Marco Poletto

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Ciber-gardening the city

The series of projects named H.O.R.T.U.S. and the Urban Algae Folly are a continuation of the StemCloud installations, ecoLogicStudio’s research into the living material of microalgae.

The basic building unit, first developed for the 2006 London Biennale, was a ‘bio-reactor’: a contained ecosphere in which algae are supplied with light, nutrients, and carbon dioxide. A cluster of clear plastic bottles containing water from different lakes and rivers in London were stacked into a wall, and the growth of life within them created a pixilated green screen. This demonstrated the idea of a ‘differentiated field’, an environment of varying degrees of habitable space, which is connected to the biological processes occurring within that environment.

StemCloud 2.0, an installation for the Seville Biennale 2008, extended this concept with the invention of an ‘oxygen-creating interaction machine’. The bio-reactors were contained within Briccoles, stacked to build a curved wall, which performed roles of spatial definition, screening of light, and release of oxygen into the gallery space. At the collective scale the installation was conceived as a self-regulating shading device: the more sunlight absorbed, the greater the bloom of algae and the greater the screening of the space. The less light each unit receives, the less photosynthesis occurs and the transparency of the wall increases. The ‘found conditions’ (environmental factors such as the layout of the wall and the particular micro-ecologies contained in the bioreactors) become integral parts of the conversation between man and ecology.

The concept of communication and interaction exploited the fact that visitors to the exhibition would add CO2 to the bio-reactors, so that the algal bloom—and the variegated environment of light and oxygen created by it—was continually altered by the same people who occupied the space.

By evolving the design of the bio-reactors whereby clear plastic tubes emerged from the body of the machine, a soft, malleable, inviting exterior was created. Users were encouraged to exhale into the tubes, introducing a symbiotic relationship between the permanent and transient elements of the installation.

In order to introduce an element of self-regulation, the blocks were allowed to ‘talk’ to the visitors: the intensity of their LEDs indicated the degree to which they required oxygen. A brighter LED, being more noticeable, would encourage interaction; until enough interactions had occurred that the need for oxygen was less pressing.

Initially, the spread of solar radiation throughout the gallery space and the algorithm used to map the interaction and layout of the installation would create the differentiated environment. However, as soon as visitors interact with the blocks the spread of transparency and screening become unpredictable, resulting in a continuous evolving space. The study and

understanding of how this dialogue between user, machine and environment can be tweaked by the designer suggest further applications rich with cybernetic potential.

Within the feedback loops of the system as a whole, several parameters can be adjusted. The physical structure of the Briccole wall, the layout of the installation and the design of the tubes affect the interaction potential, and therefore the amount of carbon dioxide that is supplied to the bioreactors.

This is in turn related to the light and photosynthesis feedback loop, where the position of artificial lights and the inbuilt tendency of the algae to create their own shade, thus limiting their growth, create equilibrium within the oxygenation feedback loop. Added to these are the systems of record and memory, where minor changes in software programming or adjustments to the sensitivity of sensors allow the designer to shape the outcome of the experiment whilst retaining its inherent unpredictability.

Subsequent projects built on other specific aspects of the StemCloud machinery. The installation for the Venice Biennale (2008) examined the natural processes of the lagoon and suggested a number of ways in which ecoMachines could ‘plug in’ to such a system: while referencing cultural and historical elements such as navigational buoys, a catalogue of ‘lagoon condensers’ was developed; these acted as incubators, containers, and research tools for the ecology of the region. This jump in scale—from furniture to landscape—represents the continuing development of a provocative attempt to explore the potential of gardening as an architectural design driver.

In the project Milan2015: a Metropolitan proto-Garden the urban environment is described through the definition of a set of operational fields. These numeric maps or datascapes provide a visual description of the variation and intensity of key descriptor parameters in space and time [also in real-time]. The choice of descriptor depends on the individual ambition and local per-formative requirements; each social group or active agent from within its virtual plot may develop interest in specific descriptors as they provide an account of the material processes that are channeled through the plot and influence directly the urban cultivation process. As plots evolve into proto-Gardens, new urban systems emerge out of a process of actualization of latent social, economic and ecologic potentials. These potentials are recognized through the framework of the virtual plots and the computation and plotting of the related operational fields; their liberation and actualization in a multitude of forms, spatial conditions and social communities is catalyzed by the introduction of new prototypical urban and architectural devices; Figure 2 - Urban Algae Folly Braga 2015 by ecoLogicStudio Figure 3 - Urban Algae Folly Braga 2015 by ecoLogicStudio Figure 4 - Urban Algae Folly Braga 2015 by ecoLogicStudio 10

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these devices are characterized by a specific set of performances [evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, carbon sequestration, etc.], are engineered into specific material organizations or systems [branching, folding, weaving], are embedded with remote sensing and actuating potential [Temperature, pH, radiation, proximity, etc.] and are interfaced with a simulation engine [digital interface].

The Urban Algae Folly, built for EXPO Milano 2015 and currently located in the central square of Braga, Portugal, is to date the most sophisticated test bed for this approach ever completed by the authors and their practice ecoLogicStudio.

Figure 5 - IAAC MA001 2015/2016 - Bio-rock Project - students: Luis Bonilla, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonathan Irawan, Lalin Keyvan, Robert Staples, Christopher Wong - tutors: Claudia Pasquero and Carmelo Zampulla - assistant tutor: Maria Kuptsova 14

Conclusions

The recasting of the practice of computational design to a broader paradigm of embedded material or biological computation has the potential to redescribe the boundaries of generative practices between what we have defined the LAB model vs the the Garden model.

To relevance and urgency for such an evolution has to be evaluated in relationship to our understanding of architecture and more broadly our conception of the city.

From an eco-political perspective we could quote Clement again who asks:

Figure 6 - IAAC MA001 2015/2016 - Chlorella Bio-filter Project - students: AndrĂŠ Resende, Hsin Li, Mohamad Elatab, Stefan Fotev, Sureshkumar Kumaravel, Yasamin Khalilbeigi - tutors: Claudia Pasquero and Carmelo Zampulla - assistant tutor: Maria Kuptsova

How can we oppose to the brutality of these so called modern techniques, an handling [of the earh’s biosphere] that is sensitive, diverse and therefore really contemporary? By bending the technological know-how to the planetary ecological needs rather than, as we can still observe in all the rich countries, enslave it to the exclusive benefit of the lobbies.

Pag. 71 – Clement, Gilles – Il giardiniere planetario – Milano: 22Publishing, 2008. Translation by Marco Poletto The material algorithm responds to the systemic and ecologic sensibility of our times as opposed to the mechanical productive logic of 20th century; today we seek to cherish and cultivate our biosphere, to understand how we can develop it or transform it in tune with its own vital cycles and the generative processes of life; life proliferates by breeding potentials of intensive differences; it is constantly opportunistic and open about the actualization of new material organizations; we seek to intensify these mechanisms while rescuing them to the conforming force of modern technology.

In its book the three ecologies Felix Guattari suggests related technological and social reasons to adopt the machinic model;

So, wherever we turn, there is the same nagging paradox: on the one hand, the continuous development of new techno-scientific means to potentially resolve the dominant ecological issues, [..] on the other hand the inability of organized social forces and constituted subjective formations to take hold of these resources in order to make them work.

Pag 22 – Guattari, Felix – the three ecologies – New York: Continuum edition, 2008 – Originally published in France, 1989.

Machinc protocols embed technology into material organizations that become part of everyday ecologic practices of planetary cultivation of the biosphere, operating at multiple interconnected scales; they operate on the selforganization of social forces by mean of technological augmentation and their usefulness emerges out of daily material experimentation within the milieu of the Urbansphere; in relationship to this technological paradox Guattari adds;

Social ecosophy will consist in developing specific practices that will modify and reinvent the ways in which we live as couples or in the family, in an urban context or at work, etc.[…] Instead of clinging to general recommendations we would be implementing effective practices of experimentation, as much on a micro social level as on a larger institutional scale.

Figure 7 - IAAC Fabrication Ecologies 2012/2013 - Hemp Fibers Structure: Robotic Spraying students: (Jean Akanish, Alexander Dolan, Vincent Huyghe) - tutors: Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto.

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Pag 24 – Guattari, Felix – the three ecologies – New York: Continuum edition, 2008 – Originally published in france, 1989.

The successful survival of the Urbansphere requires participation and exchange at the various social levels and material scales; a code that incorporates participation must be able to grow as the network grows, it cannot be defined a priori in a controlled or predetermined environment. Material algorithms co-evolve within their milieu, the articulation of their structure increases in relationship to the complexity and diversity of the urban network they serve. Material algorithms are the necessary coding logics for the selforganizing city.

“The successful survival of the Urbansphere requires participation and exchange at the various social levels and material scales”

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