an answer to the archaic?

Rachel Armstrong is hitting home. I was talking about biomemetics in architecture as way of self organizing cells (and repairing them self.) She also talks about metabolic materials. Not far off from what was proposed in the Inhabitable Organism (our METABOLISM!!!!)

Rachel Armstrong is not an architect. She is a medical doctor, multi-media producer, science fiction author and arts collaborator. Through her current research that explores architectural design and mythologies about new technology, she has been working with scientists and architects to explore cutting-edge, sustainable technologies.

Though I don't see her idea's too far off or "futuristic", Armstrong believes cities will be able to replace the energy they draw from the environment, respond to the needs of their populations and eventually regarded as "living" similar to parks or gardens. (I guess she was a big fan of Ecotopia as well....) This is also similar to point others have made about Open Source Urbanism (as the natural world can be considered as open source... let's think about mulit-poos.)

"Scientists need to work outside their own areas of expertise to make new technologies that are pertinent to the 21st century and to collaborate, both with other scientific disciplines and the arts and humanities."

Rachel Armstrong

(I KNOW RIGHT?!)

edible architecture

Forget the gingerbread house, too many carbs! How about a house that is better than a Victory Garden in the back? Forget trips to the grocer, hello Edible house! The Wall Street Journal had a feature to find out "The Green House of the Future.” Author Alex Frangos asked four well-known architects to design the house of the future. The future (if you have been living under a passive solar rock) will be energy-efficient and sustainable. The houses had no budget constraints or restraints on how we currently live.

The Incredible Edible House was designed by LA-based Rios Clementi Hale Studios. This is a thorough design for a concept home. The Edible House is constructed out of three prefab containers stacked on top of one another. The mixture of living and prefab is a fantastic combo bringing living home aspects to an attainable realm.

This house is stacked with vertical axis wind turbines mounted along the roof placed in front of an evaporative cooling reservoir. The energy production and cooling system are integrated into the house, reducing energy usage dramatically. This is what one could call a dry metabolism, self sustaining itself. Of course, the house comes with a photovoltaic awning for energy production and shading as well as adjustable doors on the sides of the house for natural cross ventilation.

The hydroponic skin covering the living quarters with a multitude of plant, vegetables and fruits starts to creep towards a wet metabolism. The living wall on the outside of the house reduces heat gain to the house as well as nourishment for the people inside.

This is close to the Edible Estates from Fritz Haeg.

response and alterations...

Current status of the thesis presentation:
I have the packaging sequence story boarded out. I have employed a friend of mine to help visualize that part. I am currently PHYSICALLY growing fungus (not the lichen that I would like but we are starting with some mushroom action. ) I am currently scheduling interviews with people who are working on the lines of this idea. I will post the questions soon. I am almost done with the processing script that will be used to help visualize the growth of this thing.

I sent my thesis statement to Pia Ednie-Brown, a professor at the SIAL.
In her response she pinpointed out somethings.

What does it mean for environments to "assimilate and integrate themselves into the contextual biospheres, self utilizing the excess materials through an auto- metabolism."?

To my own criticism of my statement, I do believe that most systems and environment already integrate themselves into the existing context, eventually if not immediately but their relation and integration is not communicated and understood but the users all the time. Overall, I guess this statement of them assimilating and integrating is pushing towards a stimulus with a "positive" outcome that would not have a terribly foreign and dramatic effect on its surroundings. The self utilizing statement runs along the lines of Waste=Food, a concept pushed by William McDonough and Partners, a prevalent designer in the world of green design. (In their Cradle to Cradle Design, they have a term called BIOLOGICAL METABOLISM. "the natural processes of ecosystems are a biological metabolism, making safe and healthy use of materials in cycles of abundance.") One could say we are trying to do that here.

Pia also brought up what the thesis statement lags in in how this model or desire to design to define what an 'Inhabitable Organism" is (or, could be), isn't just a one shot procedure but could be easier of I gradually defined what the value or goals of such a thing is. This way the model is more of what it become or could become.

Also she brought up the point that buildings become "part of ourselves as organisms, like new limbs, skins etc as we inhabit them – ie they are organisms to the extent that they are part
of living ecologies. If you are (as the sentence above suggests) seeking a building that is autonomously an organism (to the degree that living creatures are autonomous) then I imagine we could not rely on them in the same way as we do our rather solid conventional dwellings. But could they offer the world something else, and what would this be?"

Good question! (It's funny that Pia refers to the building being an extension of ourselves much like a limb and etc due to it was the extension of ourselves that brought me to architecture as a scaler jump from fashion initially. just a side note) I think its more to make the building autonomous away from a larger support grid. (of the grid .. etc. ) But supporting it with the inhabitants. So you could come home and feed your house sort to speak. You could power your house potentially with a urine battery. Or compost pile. Imagine, you might be able to "power" your house with the ants you could attract from the food left out.

The human interaction and relationship with the new structure is very important and is going to be addressed when this movie is finished. Tali and Peter from Imaginary Forces came in yesterday and talked to us about their work and projects, specifically the Experience Design. The presentation reminded that thats was what it was about in the end. What is the experience of the Inhabitable Organism? How can that be communicated? How can people understand that its ok to want and grow one of these things?

breeding spaces

A biological life support system (BLSS) can, by exploiting photosynthetic and microbiological sequences, close the circuit of metabolism and energy processes and thus from a self-contained cycle between producer, consumer and composer.

Zbigniew Oksiuta

moving units

Now is time to start thinking about what are these units, what are these cells that are sprouting and spreading? What is this unit we are scripting and coding? How would this happen in reality and not just in the the maya perspective viewer? Let's look at what makes a cell as living or possible to self sustain?
The Top Ten things that characterize a Cell as Living:
1. Cells obey Laws of Energetics - they transform energy
2. Cells are Highly Structured with emergent properties
3. Cells have an Evolutionary Origin (from a single primordial cell)
4. Cells Metabolize
possess metabolic pathways, process nutrients,
self adjust to environment via metabolic regulation
5. Cells Self-Replicate (divide) µ
6. Cells Osmoregulate
7. Cells Communicate 8. Cells show Animation (cyclosis ) 9. Cells Grow, Divide, & Differentiate10. Cells Die!!!! so, this building will not last forever! it be able to change and morph at will. reaction and actions. Cells transform energy (waste/food) by capturing light and chemical/redux reactions. The cells trans form the energy to do work - osmotic or mechanical or electrical (mmm electrical). Not only do they transform the energy but they give off energy as to maintain a non-equilibrium ordered state.

That's some radical agents. Each cell is a power plant in the spectrum of the organism. Imagine harnessing the energy? There is so much potential out there!

The basic units I will be looking at for now are the following:
animal cell based
plant cell based
hybrid (plant-animal)

Each start off as a unit in a petri dish, or like the The Perfect Human, by Jørgen Leth. That is how it forms in the computer, the script that lets the code unfold without outside stimuli. Then we take it as (Lars Von Trier did with his 5 Obstructions) , set the code/cell out with new parameters and chance and time and context.

Metabolism= Peeeece of mind

Scientists in Singapore have developed a battery powered by urine. Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology created the credit card-size battery as a disposable power source for medical test kits. Ki Bang Lee and his colleagues have designed a disposable battery on a chip that is activated by biofluids, aka urine, blood, and potentially even semen. All this stuff in our bodies is potential energy! All these fluids contains ions which allow the electricity-producing chemical reaction to take place in the battery.

This potentially low-cost biodegradable battery is not that complex to fabricate. Lee and his colleagues soaked a piece of paper in a solution of copper chloride and sandwiched it between strips of magnesium and copper. This sandwich was then laminated between two sheets of transparent plastic. When a drop of urine is added to the paper through a slit in the plastic, a chemical reaction takes place that produces electricity. (Electrici-pee!)

This little prototype battery produced about 1.5 volts, the same as a standard AA battery, and runs for about 90 minutes. Researchers said the power, voltage, and lifetime of the battery can be improved by adjusting the geometry and materials used. This technoloy can be used to power laptops, mp3 players, lightbulbs, whatever potentially! imagine all the energy that has been wasted! No more black outs in NYC! Everybody Pee!

not so proper propaganda

Notes from presenting this little ditty...
I presented it as a piece of propaganda's but its missing the dichotomy of the utopia/dystopia. Parade of information is the passive voice. So what now? Start to write stories. Aaron Bocanegra gave me the best advice I think. Develop what it means to be in these places. This totally makes sense to me as it is a reexamination and elaboration on the senses. Expressing it in real translated feelings and notions. What if you received post cards from these different places where the inhaborg was deployed much like the Greek restaurants in Floridian beach towns. This piece is too much on the surface right now and has to get into the grind. I completely agree with this as this could be called a TEASER and not the whole money shot. Other things - express the bottom emerging proliferation. What are the arguments (to be or not to be alive and encompassing?) This agent is not just a design tool
what do I want to do with this? Good question. Like so what we have all this and all this could be bricollaged together for form a "new", a third form/function/fatality. This needs to be imploded in the presentce and not to for get about the METABOLISM. I need to elaborate and really push this part because it is the ultimately defining factor. I need some flow charts!

Gregory Thorpe had some great advice for me also, as he has seen how I work from my days hunting glory holes. I need to antagonize my own design tendencies and escape and then oh yes.. return. I have to make it about the thing itself. not the representation. It is the matter that communicates its own being.

I am going to finally finish this list and get back to you. But till then.. more to digest.