{"id":67162,"date":"2019-10-08T07:32:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T05:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=67162"},"modified":"2019-10-04T14:25:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T12:25:26","slug":"can-we-redesign-the-modern-city-with-synthetic-biology-could-we-grow-our-houses-instead-of-building-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/can-we-redesign-the-modern-city-with-synthetic-biology-could-we-grow-our-houses-instead-of-building-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Can We Redesign The Modern City With Synthetic Biology? Could We Grow Our Houses Instead Of Building Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine waking up every morning in a house that is just as alive as you are. With synthetic biology, your future home could be a living, breathing marvel of nature and biotechnology. Yes, it\u2019s a bold ambition. But this kind of visionary thinking could be the key to achieving sustainability for modern cities.<\/p>\n

Our current homes and cities are severely outdated. Dr. Rachel Armstrong, a synthetic biologist and experimental architect, says, \u201cAll our current buildings have something in common: they\u2019re built using Victorian technologies.\u201d Traditional design, manufacturing, and construction processes demand huge amounts of energy and resources, but the resulting buildings give nothing back.To make our future sustainable, we need dynamic structures that give as much as they take. We need to build with nature, not against it.<\/p>\n

In nature, everything is connected. For the world\u2019s tallest trees\u2014the California redwoods\u2014 their lives depend on their connection to each other as well as on a host of symbiotic organisms. Winds and rain batter the California coast, so redwoods weave their roots together for stability, creating networks that can stretch hundreds of miles.The rains also leach nutrients from the soil. But fungi fill the shortage by breaking down dead organic matter into food for the living. A secondary network of mycelia\u2014the root-like structures of the fungi\u2014entwine with the tree roots to transport nutrients, water, and chemical communications throughout the forest. What if our future cities functioned like these symbiotic networks? What if our future homes were alive?<\/p>\n

Living, breathing architecture<\/p>\n

Architects like Mitchell Joachim and Javier Arbona<\/a>, along with environmental engineer Lara Greden, are actively working to bring these concepts, to, well, life. Their design for a truly 21st century home is grown from a tree. These homes\u2014the Fab Tree Hab\u2014 could be grafted into shape using reusable, 3D printed scaffolds, computing, and automation. The structures would benefit the local environment while interior and exterior gardens could grow food for the human occupants. The team estimates growing a full house could take five years\u2014 less than a quarter of the time regular trees need to reach full maturity. And like the redwoods, these structures could be networked together to support and strengthen the entire community.<\/p>\n

The Fab Tree Hab project embodies many of the advantages of living architecture. Unlike contemporary buildings, living structures absorb greenhouse gases instead of emitting them. They can self-assemble as well as self-repair. Need an extra room? Grow one. Durable, adaptive, the list of nature\u2019s benefits goes on and on.<\/p>\n

Architect and biotechnologist, David Benjamin, says, \u201cWorking with these biological systems and thinking about biology as part of a design palette might allow us to think of building less as single, static objects and more as dynamic systems that connect different locations.\u201d These buildings have a lifespan that begin long before we think about constructing them and extend long after we\u2019ve left.<\/p>\n

The future bio-economy<\/p>\n

In order to build living structures, we need a new kind of manufacturing ecosystem, a system that utilizes living technologies from the very beginning. Some of the earliest roots of this system have already taken hold.<\/p>\n

Like the mycelia sustaining the redwoods, the humble fungi may be the organism that anchors and sustains the new bio-economy. Mycelia have gained increasing attention because they can be grown into a variety of shapes, densities, and textures. The resulting materials are biodegradable, highly insulating, non-toxic, and flame retardant. They are also pound-for-pound stronger than concrete.<\/p>\n

Companies like Ecovative Design and MycoWorks have already developed commercial myco-materials including insulation, leather-like textiles, and sustainable packaging.<\/p>\n

Ecovative, in particular,\u2014 a longtime leader in the myco-materials space\u2014aims to re-shape the future on a massive, skyscraper-sized scale. Building with mushrooms, known as mycotecture, is a critical step towards living houses.<\/p>\n

Mycotecture isn\u2019t some far-flung, futuristic dream; architects and bio-manufacturers are already working together. In 2014, David Benjamin used Ecovative myco-bricks to construct Hy-Fi, a curving, tower-like structure commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. At the end of its lifespan, the installation was fully composted for use in local community gardens. This cycle of growth, reuse, and regrowth perfectly exemplifies the circular bio-economy of the future.<\/p>\n

Projects like Hy-Fi are early snapshots of how synthetic biology can reshape \u2013or, really, regrow\u2014our society. Eventually, biomaterials like myco-bricks could remain alive, enabling structures to repair, expand, or adapt as needed.<\/p>\n

The full bio-architectural revolution won\u2019t happen overnight. But the next step\u2014 incorporating living organisms into our existing construction methods\u2014 is already underway.<\/p>\n

On the fa\u00e7ade of the BIQ House in Hamburg, Germany, panels of microalgae absorbs sunlight and passively generate heat for the entire building. This five-story apartment complex is the first algae-powered building in the world.<\/p>\n

The BIQ House in Hamburg, Germany where panels of microalgae absorbs sunlight and passively generate heat for the entire building. This building is the first algae-powered building in the world.<\/p>\n

Algae is diverse class of organisms and its potential uses in a sustainable society are just as varied. In recent years, several projects have aimed to replace electric lights with bioluminescent algae. The latest venture, Danish company Allumen, is working to add algae\u2019s bioluminescent genes to trees in an effort to replace street lamps which could sharply cut carbon emissions. Glowing, Avatar-esque plants are currently far from reality. Much more research is needed to understand how these plants would affect the local ecosystem. But this research is vital in the next stage of living cities.<\/p>\n

Living organisms could also be used to fortify and repair existing structures. Dr. Rachel Armstrong proposes using photophobic protocells to stop Venice sinking into the sea. This synthetic biology-engineered reef could grow on Venice\u2019s existing pylons, firmly anchoring the city even as ocean levels rise.<\/p>\n

These kinds of projects aren\u2019t just solo ventures by inspired futurists, bioengineers, and experimental architects. DARPA\u2019s Engineered Living Materials (ELM) program<\/a> \u2014 with whom Ecovative has a contract\u2014 is working to develop living biomaterials which can rapidly grow shelters in any number of challenging environments. Meanwhile, the European Union\u2019s Living Architecture (LIAR) program aims to develop a modular bioreactor that could become \u201can integral component of human dwellings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living architecture doesn\u2019t just have to be confined to Earth. Synthetic biology can also grow new homes for us on other planets. Currently, NASA is investigating the potential of mycotecture habitats on Mars, while teams at Center of the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES) are developing closed-loop bio-manufacturing systems for space travel.<\/p>\n

Achieving complete sustainability is critical to our survival as a species. Given our growing global population, dwindling resources, and the consequences of our climate crisis, building the future requires nothing short of a technological revolution. Synthetic biology unlocks the power of the greatest technology ever created: nature itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine waking up every morning in a house that is just as alive as you are. With synthetic biology, your future home could be a living, breathing marvel of nature and biotechnology. Yes, it\u2019s a bold ambition. But this kind of visionary thinking could be the key to achieving sustainability for modern cities. Our current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[7190,5838,12447,11749],"supplier":[16210,10651,2078,13955,3827,16211],"class_list":["post-67162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-algae","tag-bioeconomy","tag-buildingmaterials","tag-construction","supplier-center-of-the-utilization-of-biological-engineering-in-space-cubes","supplier-defense-advanced-research-projects-agency-darpa","supplier-ecovative-design-llc","supplier-mycoworks","supplier-nasa","supplier-terreform-one-mitchell-joachim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67162"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=67162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}