RICHARD FADOK

In 2016, I started an ethnographic project on the field of “biodesign” to study how modern biotechnologies are transforming the discipline of architecture. Aided by technoscientific revolutions that have enabled the precise manipulation of life at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels, some architects today are programming bacteria, cultivating fungi, and harvesting the products of plants and animals – customs once reserved for the biologist. By using living beings to “grow” bricks and even buildings, these designers are searching for more “sustainable” alternatives to conventional techniques of manufacture and construction. As discourses and techniques from the laboratory migrate into the studio, this project asks how biology cultures architecture in its image. Two questions drive my research: How do encounters with biological materials transform architects’ notions of form and function? And how, in turn, does the use of life itself as an architectural substrate reshape the aesthetic, cognitive, and affective experience of the built environment for both designers and users?

My fieldwork thus far has included participant observation with professional and student designers at lectures, workshops, competitions, and exhibitions, most notably the Biodesign Challenge, the Biofabricate Summit, and the WantedDesign Festival.