One of the most concise and inspirational TED talks on architecture:
Here is a summary of what she says in the talk below:
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_armstrong_architecture_that_repairs_itself.html
Today all products of technology, construction, expertise, material manufacture involve a one way transfer of energy. So energy comes from our environment into our homes. She believes the key to sustainability lies in connecting them, not insulating the two. In order to do this we have to have the right kind of language. The inert and natural world are already in communication through metabolism.
Metabolism is the conversion of one substance into another through production and absorption. Living materials make the the most of their local resources in the most sustainable way through metabolism. Rachel is interested in metabolic processes for architecture.
But they don’t exist so we have to start doing so. Rachel works with Neil Spiller (whoot whoot) and other scientist (Clemens martin-hansick0). They are decribing this approach as bottom up ( starting from scratch).
All three are interested in the conversion of inert to living matter. Clemens has been working on a new form of technology called the Protocell—it’s magic—plastic bag with little battery, no DNA.
The Protocell is able to conduct itself as living orgamism which…moves, follows chemical gradients, & undergoes complex reactions. They have observed Protocells responding to their environment…shedding its skin, extracting CO2 from air and into Carbonate!
Imagine what this could mean for architecture. We need to push these technologies… to create bottom up approaches, not Victorian top-down which impose structure upon matter.
And bottom up materials exist!!! been in use since ancient times
eg. Oxford brickwork, see a lot of it is made of limestone
Limestone, when closely observed has little shells and skeleton piled upon, fossilized over millions of years.
Although the limestone is not that interesting imagine if the surface was in conversation with the atmosphere absorb CO2, grow, repair, respond to dramatic change in env?
How to make it marketable? Architects think big, scaling up biological materials.
A proposed project is the Reclamation of Venice.
Venice has a tempestuous relationship with sea and is built upon wooden piles. In order to sustainably reclaim Venice, proposes the wooden piles in conversation with limestone (protocell). Ideas of growing limestone reef underneath the city.
Protocell tech. will make a shell like limestone and depositing it onto complex materials in the environment; creatively crafted around the wooden piles. There are many way to influence what the protocell does…protocell can move away from the light, or towards it. You can choose your tissues through chemically engineering.
Itt will take years of tuning this technology. And gradually as they are repairing…the will be an excretion of limestone reef that will attract marine ecology. Imaigne an Architecture that connects city to natural world in this way!!!
The best thing, this technology has potential everywhere. It is an appropriate solution in developing countries and developed countries.
Summary
**metabolic materials as counterpart to Victorian approach
**bottom up in nature!
**these metabolic materials have properties of living systems with different forms and function
Finally someone looking at this type of architecture in the future will wonder if a structure was created by natural or artificial process.
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This was a capstone class at Tufts!
