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h ͞Historically, the city has been seen as either
mechanistic or biological in its order͟
Neil Spiller, Digital Dreams
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h ]se of biological metaphor
h Common conceptual framework
h Doctrine that formal structure rather than
content is what should be represented
h Shared methodological tools
h the practice of scrupulous adherence to
prescribed or external forms
h Top-down process

 


colecular House, cohammed Alkayer


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h ͞... Like any organism [a city] has a circulatory
system in its streets, railroads and rivers, a
brain in its universities and planning offices, a
digestive system in its food distribution and
sewage lines, muscles in its industrial centres
and any city worthy of the name has an
erogenous zone ...͟
catthew Dumont, Arthropods
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h The city is not an organism ʹ it is made of
inert materials
h The built environment consists of unrelated
objects that are secondarily connected to each
other to create the urban landscape
h Apparent vitality conferred by the behaviour
of living systems within the built environment
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h caterials of built environment are not
dynamic, they are simple, including the
current generation of ͚smart͛ materials
h Limited meaningful embodied integration of
different media
h Currently parallel architectural spaces are
accessed by cross-referral, analogy, metaphor
& interfaced via human ͚experience͛
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h aequires a fundamental change in the
organization model that describes the
relationship between building materials and
the environment
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h New model of sustainable architectural
practice that directly connects the built
environment to nature
h The unit of Living Architecture is the
Architectural protocell

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h A protocell is a primordial atomic globule,
connected to the environment through the
languages of physics and chemistry. ]niquely,
protocell technology possesses material
complexity, and is capable of self-organisation

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h Vrotocells can be made of pre-existing
biological materials such as protoplasm ʹ for
example, the protoplasm of the green algae
O  and slime mould ʹ or can be
fabricated from scratch using organic and
inorganic chemicals

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h This gives rise to the possibility of Vrotocell
Architecture, as protocell units work together
to generate their output
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h re want to change the world with almost


nothing.
h It is possible to generate complex materials
and architectures through harnessing the
fundamental energetics of matter. In other
words, doing more with less
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h rhat we call protocell architecture is, at root, a piece of
Dadaist and Surrealist research, in which all the lofty
questions have become involved
h The novel self-assembling material systems that arise from
protocell architectural practice make no reference to, nor
attempt to mimic bio-logic. As such, protocell architecture is
an alien to the natural world, yet speaks the same
fundamental languages of chemistry and physics. The results
of these conversations and interactions constitute a parallel
biology and second biogenesis whose aesthetics are described
by Surrealist agendas
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h Architecture is dead, long live architecture
h Vrotocells constitute a disruptive technology for
architectural practice since they are capable of
reaching a transition point when evolution emerges
within the system, the outcome of which is
unpredictable and therefore offer novel and
surprising ways of constructing architecture that will
succeed and replace conventional technologies
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h Vrotocell architecture swallows contrast and all contradictions
including the grotesquery and illogicality of life
h Vrotocell technology is at the beginning of an evolutionary
pathway that is connected to and dependent on the
environmental conditions around it. The responsiveness of
protocells to stimuli, means they can be regarded as
computing units. Consequently, protocells do not seek to
generate idealized architectural forms but reflect and
interpret the full spectrum of the processes they encounter in
the real world
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h rhat is generally termed life is really a frothy nothing that
merely connects
h Vrotocell technology offers an opportunity for architects to
engage with the evolutionary process itself. ]nlike natural
biological systems that evolve randomly according to
Darwinian evolution, protocell technology allows deliberate
and specific interventions throughout the entire course of its
coming into being. By moving and metabolizing, protocells
may form the basis for a synthetic surface ecology. These
interventions are the basis of what we call protocell
architecture
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h re do not wish to imitate nature, we do not wish to
reproduce nature, we want to produce architecture in the way
a plant produces its fruit. re do not want to depict, we want
to produce directly, not indirectly, since there is no trace of
abstraction. re call it Vrotocell Architecture
h Vrotocell Architecture embodies the principles of emergence,
bottom-up construction techniques and self-assembly. It is
equipped with design ͚handles͛ that enable the architect to
persuade rather than dominate the outcome of the system
through physical communication. As such, these systems are
unknowable, surprising and anarchic.
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h re want to collage effective biological


machinery that composes itself according to
the drivers of design
h Vrotocell Architecture is chemically
programmable and operates in keeping with
the organizing principles of physics and
chemistry
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h re want over and over again, movement and


connection; we see peace only in dynamism
h Vrotocell Architecture gathers its energy from
the tension that resides at an interface
between two media such as oil and water,
which causes movement, disruption and
change. Vrotocell Architecture resists the
equilibrium since this constitutes death
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h The head is round, so thoughts can revolve.


The head of architecture is green, robust,
synthesized and exists everywhere
simultaneously, whether it is large or very,
very small
h Vrotocell Architecture is fashioned from ͚low
tech biotech͛ characterised by ubiquitous,
durable and affordable materials
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h re wish to blur the firm boundaries, which


self-certain people delineate around all we
can achieve
h Vrotocell Technology becomes a co-author in
the production of architecture through the
possession of living properties and its ability
to self-assemble
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h re tell you the tricks of today are the truths of
tomorrow
h Vrotocell Architecture is better adapted to the
prevailing physical and social conditions since it is
founded on a new set of technologies that are not
͚alive͛ but which possess some of the properties of
living systems. As such these technologies are
qualitatively different to the industrial and digital
technologies that have become the mainstream tools
of the twentieth century
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h re will work with things that we do not want


to design, things that already have systematic
existence
h Vrotocell Technology has the capacity to
transform and modify existing building
materials and architecture with the potential
for surprise
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h 6ou know as much as we do that architecture


is nothing more than rhythms and
connections
h Vrotocell Architecture embodies the
complexity of materials in a literal, rather than
metaphorical manner and becomes a physical
part of our existence
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h re will construct exquisite corpses not dead


but alive and useful
h Vrotocell Architecture is central to the
understanding of living systems. It allows us to
work with and enhance the unavoidable
inconsistency which is the essence of life itself
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h re deal in a second aesthetic, one that initiates
beginnings and moulds with natural forces
h Vrotocell Architecture is connected to the
environment through constant conversation and
energy exchange with the natural world in a series of
chemical interactions called ͚metabolism͛. This
involves the conversion of one group of substances
into another, either by absorbing or releasing energy
- doing more with less



h Living Architecture is part of the biosphere
h Integrated through common chemical
language called metabolism
h cetabolism connects living systems to the
environment
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h caterials that are capable of metabolism
h These materials are ͚living͛ and can be
thought of as Living Technology


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h Vossess some but not all of the properties of
living systems
h Qualitatively different to 20th century
technologies with which we are familiar
h Capable of growth, movement, sensitivity,
repair, complex behaviour and even
reproduction


h Ror practical purposes in the built
environment, these materials need to be
robust, safe, ubiquitous and inexpensive
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h ]se existing metabolic systems and materials
to create the desired outcome:
h Crystal growth (biomorphic)
h ͚Cellular Gardening͛ of indigenous
microorganisms for selected characteristics
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h Low tech, chemical computers
h Vrotocell technology: an example of Living
Technology
h NO DNA
h Based on the chemistry of oils
h Vrogrammable using inorganic chemistry
h Can produce architectural outcomes
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h Vrotocell technology programmed to move
away from light and deposit limestone under
the wood pile foundations of the historic city
h Generation of an artificial reef
h New ecological niches for marine organisms
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h Living Architecture is a new way of thinking
about creating the built environment since it
uses a bottom up approach to construction
h Living Architecture is in direct conversation
with the environment through the physics and
chemistry of the fundamental matter which
can be thought of an ͚architectural protocell͛
" .  
h cartin Hanczyc
h Alexandru Vladimirescu
h Neil Spiller
h Christian Kerrigan
h Shin Tseng
h Andrew Vaine
h Andrew Loxley
h Soichiro Tsuda
h Simon Vark
h catthias Hollwich

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