MORE ON LIVING BUILDINGS OF THE FUTURE post by Dana Krell

Last week, a few girls presents an ethics debate about ‘Living Architecture’ where researchers were trying to create protocells which can be used to form buildings from a ‘bottom up’ approach.  In their presentation they talked about Dr. Rachel Armstrong, senior TED fellow and co-director of Avatar, and how their  research group was exploring the potential of advanced technologies in architecture.  I had never heard about this technology before their presentation.  One student in our class recognized that the video was a few years outdated and asked the presenters if they had any more recent information on this study.  I found this topic very interesting so I decided to see if I could find any updates on the research.

I did find that Rachel Armstrong’s book Living Architecture: How Synthetic Biology Can Remake Our Cities and Reshape Our Lives was released on Tuesday, February 7^th of this year.  Her book displays her opinion in this architecture research.  She argues, “that in order to achieve sustainable development of the built environment—and help countries like Japan recover from natural disasters—we need to start building architecture that grows itself”.   In her book, she demonstrates a variety  of ways to make structures and materials.  She believes that “we can ‘grow’ more ecologically compatible buildings by using life-like technologies and that the result is a new kind of architectural practice where cities behave more like an ecosystems than machines”.

I know one of the many concerns of these technology was, ‘how will it stop’?  I know I had this idea that it was only a matter of time that the limestone shell would build up and the city would be consumed with limestone much like a science fiction movie.  This will not happen, however, because the protocells are only going to be alive, not actually responsive.  Other than the fear of limestone consuming the city, this is actually a valid prospect for cleaning up our air.  This field of study is called “synthetic biology”.  Synthetic biology is the idea of trying to stimulate life with chemicals.  Dr. Rachel Armstrong, in particular, works with chemicals that have been manipulated to act like organic microorganisms, only better – they’d be able to do things that actual microorganisms can’t do.

How this would work more specifically:

“It turns out that, minus sensationalist images about monstrous sentient buildings taking over human civilization, The example above – these protocells mixed with paint – is a realistic option for our cities. The protocells would essentially react with CO2 in the air, the same way that iron interacts with water to form rust, and the result would be a sort of limestone shell that would coat the building. The limestone coat will initially take anywhere upwards of a year to form, depending on how much CO2 is in the air, and it will grow in thickness.

Ultimately, Armstrong hopes to make protocells which can replenish themselves and “will be considered alive”. In addition to reducing a city’s carbon impact, the limestone will help shore up buildings by patching minute cracks in their walls, serve as a form of insulation, and even keep out pests and critters like bergen county bed bugs.

Unfortunately for home owners looking to go greener, it’s not as simple as if running out and purchasing some home solar panels. While the technology is proving sound in the lab, it isn’t being manufactured on an industrial scale – yet. Armstrong, though she is under a nondisclosure agreement, mentioned that a paint manufacturer in the UK is “looking into” her technology. Hopefully they look into it really seriously – this is an awesome real-life use of sci-fi technology.”