‘LIVING ARCHITECTURE’ Architecture that Breathes and Grows
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LIVING ARCHITECTURE Bringing buildings to life
Song Pei Fen 11019165 U30025 Issues in Architectural History and Theory
Page Cover : Hylozoic Ground by Philip Beesley, displayed at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010
Essay Question 3 Architecture has been influenced by alternate disciplines such as film, art, engineering etc. Sometimes this influence, on the surface, seems simplistic. Taking one example from an alternate discipline explore the possible connections of the work to architectural practice and architectural design. This essay should go beyond the obvious and will require that the author has a good knowledge of the theoretical position of the alternate discipline. [Analogy?]
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Introduction ÂŹ
Life Sciences & Architecture The built environment has been constantly evolving with mankind since the creation of the first living system on this planet, with nature as a primary resource and inspiration.
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From top to bottom : Evolution of mankind in tandem with evolution of living systems and evolution of architecture/built environment
The first men lived in caves like bats and survived on flora and fauna as chemical energy source. The Sun provides light and heat energy for cooking and navigation. The soil is a rich bed of minerals for vegetation while water functions as a food source and transport system. As mankind evolved over the years, the functions of Nature have become more and more sophisticated to sustain the built environment. Today, water is used to power man-made machines, to generate electricity, to cool and heat buildings, to perform aesthetically and symbolically.
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Living sciences used to revolve around “living matter” only. But now, we realize that “living” includes buildings, geology, obscure dimensions of life such as time, and consciousness of everything existing in this world—physical or not. Life sciences are the scientific study of living organisms. It is the close examinations of natural systems and structure that have most informed technological advances in this field. Nature lives in architecture, and architecture lives in Nature. But for many years now, the built environment has always been designed as a separate entity from Nature, although taking inspiration from the natural world and surrounded by the bionetwork of flora and fauna, the interaction/rapport between architecture and Nature somehow is still not engaging enough. The distinction between natural and artificial is still apparent.
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Architecture coexisting with nature From top left to bottom left : 1. Stone House in Portugal uses the two stones as walls 2. The shape of Olympic Stadium in Munchen being inspired by the shape of a leaf Figure 7
3. Truffle house formed through the process of gradual consumption of hay by a cow
This essay aims to reconnect Nature and the Built Environment as a single interdependent entity with life sciences as the medium to materialize the bio-inspired architectural concept of ‘Living Architecture’.
What is Living Architecture? How will it shape the future of inhabited living spaces? Will it become obsolete when our understanding of the biological ecosystem changes or will it still be a valid basis for design?
Here, we explore and challenge the role of life sciences in architecture and the potential of bio-inspired technologies in realising the concept of living architecture.
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Living Architecture ÂŹ Just as in a pond, a building with people and animals, and plants and building materials may be considered a living system. A living system in ecology is a system that contains living organic entities and non-living non-organic entities that coexist in one self-sustaining system. (Neis, 2007) Systems with multifunctional materials and structures are developed emulating the capability of living systems. (Cohen, 2005) While many aspects of life sciences are highly complex and yet to have a stimulus in archtecture, significant conceptual and practical research has been made to manifest a living architecture. The living architecture theory is founded on the nature of matter and space, taking life sciences as a model. The theory of living architecture bridges architecture and environment,between the built and nature, between what we contribute to the state of life and what is contributed by other life.
Clockwise from top left : Natural living system consists of living entities and non-living entities living in a balanced ecosystem
In an architectural context, let us imagine a brick wall that crumbles over years under the impact of rain. Is the wall interacting with its environment? It is not actively responding to the environment – rather, it merely succumbs to the environmental challenges, the environment does not change its behaviour as a result of the wall’s gradual collapse. Across the world, the built environment has been challenged with environmental issues such as natural disaster, pollution, climate change and natural chemical processes (erosion, weathering). Buildings today are designed to be responsive to the environment to maintain a balanced ecosystem and to have a longer lifetime. Buildings in Japan are designed based on the structural qualities of bamboo to adapt and withstand the great magnitude of frequent seismic activities. Water retention and urban architecture adaptation measures are taken to mitigate the flood risks in Rotterdam. Responsiveness to the environment has become a fundamental characteristic in architecture in this modern world. Active responsiveness to the environment is a significant property of living architecture. Active responsive in architecture is analogous to biological systems like metabolism, a process of change or transformation. It concerns an exchange of information between two systems. Omar Khan(2006), a researcher in responsiveness and performativity in architecture, describes responsive architecture as a performing instrument and a new generation of architecture that responds to building occupants and environmental factors. “It has embraced distributed technical systems as a means and end for developing more mutually enriching relationships between people, the space they inhabit, and the environment.” The concept of responsive architecture is not new to the built environment. In contemporary architecture, the idea of responsiveness to the environment is adopted in reflexive surfaces skins on buildings and metabolic construction materials.
Architectural surfaces & skin that REACTS to the environment ÂŹ The conception of an architecture that is reactive to the environment has initiated a series of architectural research and collaborations. Architect Mette Ramsgard Thomsen and Simon Lovind collaborated in ‘Vivisection’, an exploration of the spatial formation within architecture and design based on the idea of a robotic membrane. It is a sensing skin reactive to its inhabitation. It is a study of how a tectonic surface, a fabric of silk and steel, senses and actuates to the surrounding stimuli. The sensors detect the presence of audience and inform a network of distributed micro-computers that control the fans, inflating and deflating internal bladders in the structure. (Thomsen, n.d.)
Left : Vivisection - A responsive experiment that investigates the sensing capacity of tectonic surface and how intelligent programming prototypes could create a space that has a sense of autonomy from its occupation and use. Figure 12A
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The concept of active responsive architecture is portrayed in a larger scale in the south facade of Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe. The building facade is designed with responsive metallic brise soleil lenses which respond to changing light levels, inspired by the Middle East traditional latticework used as a sun shade and privacy purpose. The built environment becomes a self-regulatory entity that registers its inhabitation and changes its internal conditioning in accordance with an anticipation of its usage. (Thomsen, n.d.)
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Left & right : The system incorporates several hundred light sensitive diaphragms that regulate the amount of light that is allowed to enter the building. During the various phases of the lens, a shifting geometric pattern is formed and showcased as both light and void. (Winstanley, 2011)
Philip Beesley’s work 
An influential artist in the field of study of bioinspired responsive architecture, Canadian architect Philip Beesley specialises in the field of widely expanding technology of responsive architecture. He studies the hybrid form of nature; organicism and design integrated with responsive, distributed architectural environment and interactive systems. Figure 15
His works display an integration of flexible lightweight kinetic structures with microprocessing, sensor and actuator systems. He focuses on digital fabrication methods and sheetmaterial technology. The combination of man-made and near-living systems seeks to pursue a real world application in architecture.
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Hylozoic Ground Beesley’s Hylozoic Ground was selected to represent Canada at the 2010 Venice Biennale in architecture. Part of the Hylozoic Soil Series, Hylozoic Ground is a unique experimental architecture that explores Beesley’s vision of an architecture that ‘breathes’ and ‘grows’. It pursues reflexive, kinetic architectural environments. Hylozoic refers to hylozoism, a philosophical view that matter has life, proposes a future inhabited world analogous to a livign system. ‘It’s an immersive environment, it’s about being inside something, not being on top of it and owning it, but being swallowed by it, with a sense of vertigo,’ Beesley says. (Peters,2009) Figure 17
The mechanical installation covered in sensors, microprocessors, mechanical joints and filters is analogous to a living coral reef, following cycles of opening, clamping, filtering and digesting. (Etherington, 2010) Figure 18
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The Hylozoic Ground captures carbon in a biomimetic framework that moves and changes with the movement of people walking through it. As one approaches the installation, proximity sensors detect movement and respond with subtle, swallowing motions. Sensors in the tips of appendages react to human touch by setting off an array of microprocessors, producing choreographed movements that ripple through the structure. Stray organic matter from visitors is drawn up by the breathing apparatus’s peristaltic motion and absorbed in the upper-layer filters. (Allen, 2010)
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Engineered protocells are arranged as a series of embedded flasks that process carbon dioxide from the occupied atmosphere and convert it into inert calcium carbonate. The circulation system is fed by water from the Venice lagoon to regulate the Hylozoic Ground.
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This self-renewing chemical system explores how parts of a building might be engineered to have a metabolism to react to chemical changes from the air and transform pollutants in the environment into benign ones.
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Left : The flasks and bladders contain protocells, which grow due to visitors’ presence. Right : A detail of the Hylozoic Ground Protocell flask which contains a mixture of olive oil and water from the Venice lagoon. The liquids undergo controlled reactions with various iron and copper minerals contained in the device to form precipitates. Next page : Visitors navigating the Hylozoic Ground artificial landscape at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale
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Philip Beesley attaching the digitally fabricated components Figure 25
Endothelium
The collaboration between Philip Beesley and Hayley Isaacs, exhibited in December 2008 at the Body Art Disease Symposium in Los Angeles also explores experimental kinetic environments in a more subtle manner. Subtle yet powerful, Endothelium questions the relationship between people and their environment. It is a lightweight geotextile field of organic ‘bladders’ that are powered using mobile phone vibrators and that move very slowly, self-burrowing, self-fertilizing and are linked by 3D printed joints and thin bamboo scaffolding. It works by using tiny gel packs of yeast which burst and fertilize the geotextile. Visitors stir the air, directing humidified air and dust particles around the space. (Peters, 2009) Experimental kinetic environments such as Endothelium and Hylozoic Ground could lead to exciting new potentials for architectural materials and surfaces. Beesley’s interests in ethics and emotional responses, both have a future in creating bespoke, dynamic surfaces using customized technology for design and manufacturing.
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‘It could be seen as a building material for the future, capable of high performance energy exchange, or as an environmental threshold,’ says Beesley from his office at Waterloo University in Ontario, Canada. ‘It’s measurable, it has a particular scale, and it can be applicable to architecture, surfaces or building.’ (Peters, 2009)
The aesthetics of Beesley’s work are radical.
Bottom left : Arrangement of tiny gel packs of yeast which burst and fertilize the geotextile.
Instead of starting with a shape or sculptural form, he designs a nurturing environment for a ‘living architecture’ to communicate, adapt and breathe. The functions of his installation inform its form.
Bottom right : The support-skeleton is composed of minimal-mass bamboo compression struts arranged as space-truss, tied in digitally fabricated triangular joints and a web of thread and cable tension members.
Imagine a building actually coming to life: breathing, eating, resting, reacting and digesting. Cities of the future will be seen as energetic robotic landscapes, almost science fiction, yet familiar and organic. But Beesley’s work goes beyond bio-engineered systems and raises real questions about the imbalanced relationship of an inhabited built environment to the ecosystem. Beesley’s works also showcase the potential architectural applications of protocell research that Dr. Armstrong specialises in. Figure 27
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‘I don’t want this to devolve into science fiction,’ he says, ‘a further investment into the practical implications is needed.’ Beesley (Peters, 2009) Figure 30
Rachel Armstrong’s work Figure 31
To Dr. Rachel Armstrong, architecture is very similar to medicine. Stepping into the world of architectural research from a medical and science background, she believes architecture is idealistic, optimistic and requires technology and the application of science to create change in the environment. Currently, she is a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture and Construction at the University of Greenwich. She is also a senior TED fellow, Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett and Professor Neil Spiller’s AVATAR Research Group member. She designs sustainable built and natural environment using advanced new technologies such as, Synthetic Biology which incorporates smart engineering of living systems and chemistry. In her research about living architecture, she investigates new approach to building materials, in which she postulates that buildings could share some of the properties of living systems. The discovery of technologies that coalesce with fundamental biology, chemistry and physics of materials may have the potential to generate sustainable architecture that is integrated with the naturalworld. “The only way to create genuinely sustainable home and cities is by connecting them to nature, not insulating them from it.” (Armstrong, 2009)
The concept of living architecture has a promising future in sustainable building. Living architecture offers an exciting opportunity to achieve environmental, moral, social and economic benefits. This new movement aims to create environmentally-responsive energy-efficient buildings and developments by effective bio-inspired engineering and technology. Rachel Armstrong defines living architecture as a way of using ecological solutions to deal with 21-st century challenges. It is the application of new materials and engineered systems to adopt the unique properties of life into architecture. “Living technology is more robust and environmentally responsive than traditional materials, and can deal with unpredictability in a way that current technologies cannot.” (Armstrong, 2009) It needs to be introduced into the urban environment as a symbiotic strategy that synthesizes ecology and architectural design – which is not about making objects as buildings, but in constructing new natures. Examples of technologies that she has worked on include protocells (chemically programmable agents based on the chemistry of oil and water), slime mould (primitive robust organisms), bacteria and other forms of complex chemistry. These new technologies share the ability to sense and directly respond to the environment. (Armstrong, 2010)
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From left to right: Technologies developed by Armstrong, 1. Protocell - used in Philip Beesley’s Hylozoic Ground 2. Slime mould, Physaurm polycephalum, is developed to act as biological sensors of environmental change 3. Genetically-modified bacteria to cure environmental issues
Protocell Technology  Armstrong’s collaboration with chemist Martin Hanczyc in discovering the protocell technology holds a promising potential to transform the built environment. Their collaboration is also developing metabolic construction materials tending towards sustainability, carbon capture and life-like building envelopes. Metabolic materials are a technology that acts as a chemical interface or language through which artificial structures such as, architecture, can connect with natural systems. Metabolic materials work with the energy flow of matter and systems using a bottom up approach to the construction of architecture. (Armstrong, 2012)
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When attending the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, Armstrong mentioned that the solution to the problem of climate change could lie in the development of “protocells”. They are artificial cells that, while lacking DNA, can divide and replicate in a similar manner to living cells. “If scientists can create such cells”, Armstrong says, “that they could carry out the same function as the oil droplets, but be programmed to run on salty water, making them more self-sufficient.” (TheTimes, 2009) The protocells are constructed using a so-called bottom up approach: a small set of molecules self-organize into protocellular structures which may possess properties of living systems. Research and experiments have been performed to programme the cells to calcify carbon dioxide (a waste product in the environment), creating a solid bio-lime material.
Previous page (left) : A protocell self-multiplying From previous page (top right to bottom right) till current page (top right till bottom left) : A time-based series of imades, ranging from 0 to 150 s, showing a protocell shedding a skinlike coating that has potential architectural properties
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Top: An overview of Venice which hides the problem faced by the decaying piles underwater Left to right : Damage and cracks on walls caused by serious floods and constant contact with canal water in Venice
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This field is still at its developing stage, thus the possibilities it may bring to the built environment are still in speculation. Armstrong proposes a sustainable reclamation of Venice by building a protocell reef underwater. In this context, protocells could be used to “heal� crumbling bricks by synthesizing limestone in the presence of water underneath to stop the city sinking into the soft mud.
The protocell technology is a living technology that could be applied in construction materials that will bring life and dynamism to building surfaces that perform life functions such as growth, self-repair and recycling. Armstrong’s systems science approach to architectural design challenges the gap between artificial and natural living systems.
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Top : Protocell installation, Venice 2010 Right : Protocells making crystals due to environmental changes.
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“Our bio-lime will be naturally white. Not only will it be able to reflect UV radiation, it will be able to absorb carbon dioxide. The first applications of this have nothing to do with science fiction. We’re talking about very smart, active coatings on buildings. And it could easily be applied to the entire built environment.” Rachel Armstrong (BDonline, 2009)
Protocell as a model for real world living architecture ¬ Protocell architecture aims to bring about a new way of thinking about the built environment by developing new materials and methodologies, in design and planning, based on the fundamental properties of matter (Hanczyc and Ikegami, 2009). To apply the protocell technology on buildings to create a living architecture, the bone structure of a modern building could be altered to accommodate a new skin, which could be replaced with environmentally active exteriors or ‘living’ claddings. In Rachel Armstrong’s ebook, Living Architecture: How Synthetic Biology Can Remake Our Cities and Reshape Our Lives, she mentioned that living claddings are designed to contain a range of synthetic biology-based technologies including the protocells. In the book she explains how old or inadequate buildings could be regenerated by configuring their concrete frameworks into bio-engineered claddings or skins capable of heating or cooling the structure, or trapping carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air.
The protocell technology could also prove useful in water-prone areas. Materials designed through this technology could be engineered to collect and utilize the morning dew on building exteriors. Building materials that experience problem with excess water could be designed to have better tolerance to water and water shortage management through the application of living technology.
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REACTIVE CONCRETE ÂŹ
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Living architecture is not just a hypothesis. It has already successfully yield the creation of self-healing concrete or bacterial concrete. As one of the main materials used in the construction industry, from the foundation of buildings to underground tunnels and skyscrapers, traditional concrete cracks when subjected to tension. Cracks in concrete are caused by water and other salts corrosion. The location of buildings particularly by the coastal line reduces the life of concrete.
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Concrete is the world’s most popular building material which suffers from cracking.
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Bacterial concrete could alleviate damage problems to concrete structures before the end of their service life. The research of self-healing concrete in the laboratory and full-scale outdoor testing started in 2011. The work was led by microbiologist Henk Jonkers and concrete technologist Eric Schlangen at Delft Technical University. Bacterial spores and the nutrients they feed on are added as granules into the concrete mix with water omitted. Rainwater activates the bacteria spores and they work their way into the cracks. The bacteria belonging to the Bacillus genus - then feed on the nutrients to produce limestone. The bacterial food in the healing agent is calcium lactate - an element of milk. The microbes in the granules are able to tolerate the highly alkaline environment of the concrete.
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Clockwise from top left : 1. Bacteria reacting and patching up cracks in concrete 2. Electron microscope photograph of bacterial spores. Magnification 15000 x 3. Bioconcrete showing 50% volume of expanded clay healing agent. Bacterial spores and food (dark particles) are kept immobilised in separate packages (Arnold, 2011)
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Tunnels, basements and highway infrastructure are water-prone environments which will benefit from this innovation. Rachel Armstrong, calls the project “a landmark in developing ‘living’ materials”.
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From top to bottom : Architecture infrastructures that would benefit from the bacterial concrete technology, 1. Water tunnel/Drainage pipes 2. Basement of buildings 3. Dams
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Before-and-after pictures of the surface of a slab of self-healing concrete. The crack is visible in the left-hand image and on the right, the white limestone has filled up the gap. (Arnold, 2011)
Left : Dr Henk Jonkers placed a sample block of self-healing concrete into a machine that will create cracks on the surface Figure 53
“For a biologist to work with civil engineers to incorporate living matter into structural concrete material is in itself a great innovation,� Henk Jonker (Arnold, 2011)
Figure 54A
Clockwise from top left : Stages of the concrete process ; 1. Cells producing calcium carbonate crystals, 2. Cells acting as reinforcing fibres in the crack 3. Cells producing Levans glue which acts as a binding agent and fills up the whole crack.
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A similar project was carried out at Newcastle University in the UK to develop a new kind of concrete glue called BacillaFilla . It is a mixture of calcium carbonate and specially-designed bacterial cells which fill in cracks in concrete.
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BacillaFilla is a genetically modified version of Bactillus subtilis, a bacteria found in common soil which germinates only at a specific pH of concrete. They swim down the fine cracks in concrete and clump when they reach the bottom of the crack. The clumping process causes the cells to differentiate into three types – cells which produce calcium carbonate crystals (also known as limestone); cells which become filamentous (acting as reinforcing fibers); and lastly cells that produce a glue (acting as a binding agent and fills the gap). These cells harden to the same strength as the surrounding concrete.The self-destruct gene in the bacteria prevents it from wildly straying from its concrete target. “Around 5 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions are from the production of concrete, making it a significant contributor to global warming,” said joint project instructor Jennifer Hallinan, a research fellow in complex systems at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom. “Finding a way of prolonging the lifespan of existing structures means we could reduce this environmental impact and work towards a more sustainable solution.” (NBCNews, 2010) Hallinan continued: “This could be particularly useful in earthquake zones where hundreds of buildings have to be flattened because there is currently no easy way of repairing the cracks and making them structurally sound.” (NBCNews, 2010)
Top : The scientific name for the BacillaFilla is called Bacillus Subtillus 168.
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BacillaFilla diagram
Figure 57A
This technology will be useful in places where buildings are constantly in danger of damage such as Venice - buildings are constantly in contact with water, and UAE countries - unstable weather conditions negatively affect the buildings. Figure 57B
Challenges to Living Architecture ÂŹ
Every new discovery is bound to face challenges, so does the new concept of living architecture. Aside from being difficult to scale, this new technology in creating living architecture is costly, especially in the field of genetic manipulation. The time factor is also a sensitive issue which needs to be addressed smartly. The time taken for the experiments and real-life production has to be carefully considered. Ecological implications may arise from the new technologies. The resultant materials and systems would be vulnerable to infections. The ecological balance may be disrupted with the introduction of new technology into the environment. The living materials being implemented in buildings has the potential to grow and spread also face the possibility of being eaten by animals. This may disrupt the ecological balance. “From a public health and safety perspective, genetically modified organisms raise social and ethical concerns, particularly regarding their potential to contaminate natural environments,� Armstrong writes. (smartplanet, 2012) Figure 58
Thus, thorough lab testing and real world simulation or applications have to be performed to get the desired results before being introduced in large scales. Sufficient budgets from private and government are needed for open research & development in various disciplines related to the new technology. Investment in people - international teams of innovators from industry and academia, not just products is crucial because manpower and expertise is a long term asset to build and re-evaluate ways of generating evolvable cities. Scientists and architects have to collaborate and work beyond their own specialised fields to make ‘living architecture’ work. Nevertheless, the concept of living architecture as an energy flow between nature and architecture is revitalizing and should be pursued as a new direction in architecture.
Conclusion ¬
The projects done by Philip Beesley and Rachel Armstrong explore how the built environment can be programmed to have its own living qualities, based on the concept ‘Hylozoism’, that all matter has life, including architecture. (Beesley, 2011) Nature offers an endless sky of possibilities and inventions that are applicable, practically and durably in changing environment. Figure 59
“I envision a built environment made sustainable with responsive and dynamic structures, an architectural practice where cities behave more like an evolving ecosystem than a lifeless machine.� Rachel Armstrong, 2012
In order to harness the most from nature’s capabilities, it is critical to unite the fields of living sciences and architecture with exploration and innovation of living technologies. Living architecture has the power to erase the boundary between the built environment and natural world, creating an architecture which sustains nature and is sustained by nature. Living architecture is a strategic tool that, if properly developed, could be a highly prospective approach to the challenge of cities and realise responsive and sustainable architecture.
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So, will it still be a valid basis for design in the present and future?
With full support from everybody and passionate collaboration among various skilled people and most importantly the belief in living architecture, yes! It will be a ceaseless design trend. I strongly believe that this new direction in architecture has infinite possibilities which could shape a lifetime of resilient, sustainable built environment.
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References Books
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