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Technology|Architecture + Design
ISSN: 2475-1448 (Print) 2475-143X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/utad20
Built to Grow: Blending Architecture and Biology
Edited by Barbara Imhof and Petra Gruber Birkhäuser. Edition Angewandte,
2016, 180 Pages, $56.00 (paperback)
Gundula Proksch
To cite this article: Gundula Proksch (2018) Built to Grow: Blending Architecture and Biology,
Technology|Architecture + Design, 2:1, 118-119, DOI: 10.1080/24751448.2018.1420972
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/24751448.2018.1420972
Published online: 02 Apr 2018.
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118
TAD 2 : 1
Built to Grow:
Blending Architecture
and Biology
Edited by Barbara Imhof
and Petra Gruber
Birkhäuser, Edition Angewandte,
2016
180 Pages
$56.00 (paperback)
The emerging discipline of biomimetics
converges biology, chemistry, and engi-
neering to offer a scientific approach to
bio-inspiration. It develops methodolo-
gies for the in-depth analysis of nature
to derive technological advances.
1
In the
field of architecture, biomimetic research
primarily has the potential to contribute to
the design of innovative building systems
and structures, such as ef ficient structural
support, fac ade systems, shading systems,
natural ventilation systems, and compos-
ite materials, to advance the performance
of buildings.2
Built to Grow: Blending Architecture and
Biology, edited by Barbara Imhof and Petra
Gruber, bases its biomimetic research on
studies of natural growth patterns exam-
ined in a biology lab. The goal is to trans-
late the findings into “living” architecture,
which aspires to adapt to its environment
and to advance the architectural vision of
“growing” a structure rather than build-
ing it. In this pursuit, the book merges
established life science, technology,
applied research, and design integration
into a highly inspirational and educational
resource for architects and designers.
Built to Grow documents the inventive
2.5-year-long research project Growing
as Building (GrAB) and its final exhibition,
conducted at the University of Applied
Arts in Vienna and funded by the Aus-
trian Science Fund within the Program
for Arts-based Research. The co-project
leads and book editors, Imhof and Gru-
ber, bring strong backgrounds in archi-
tecture and science. They initiated this
creative synthesis between architecture
and life science (unusual in the context of
arts-based research) and established the
interdisciplinary GrAB team consisting of
architects, artist, biologists, engineers,
and students.
Paralleling the approach of the GrAB
project, the book is organized in three
larger par ts : an in t rod uctio n to th e unde r-
lying assumptions and methodologies,
the main body of detailed descriptions of
selected biological experiments, and con-
cluding reflections with an outlook into
the future.
The introductory section includes an
essay that links biological growth with
current practices in architecture. This con-
ceptual understanding of growth patterns
observed in nature and the reflection of
its potential for architectural application
offers a forward-looking basis for fur-
ther speculation and experimentation. It
is much broader and complex than the
experiments eventually conducted, pri-
marily due to feasibility constraints.
The experiments documented in the
main body, “Experimentation,” were con-
ducted in GrAB’s “Biolab,” a hands-on biol
-
ogy laboratory. The experiments cover
four different areas of basic and applied
research which are pertinent to architec-
ture: the transfer of growth principles
from nature to architecture; biologically
amended material systems; the integra-
tion of biological organisms in constructed
systems; and mobile 3D-printing based on
observed natural growth patterns.
The third and concluding part of the
book, together with Rachel Armstrong’s
foreword, sets the GrAB project in con-
text. It reflects on the integral potential of
biomimetics by contrasting GrAB’s artis-
tic, experimental vision with approaches
pursued by engineers in more traditional
science labs and by discussing intrinsic
ethical values and future prospects for
the convergence of biology, architecture,
and technology.
The interdisciplinary integration of
architecture and life science, as vividly
manifested in the operation of the “bio-
lab” within an architecture school, is the
most innovative aspect of the book. The
laboratory was constructed on a small
budget from simple off-the shelf com-
ponents. This “transformative learning
space” allowed direct observation of liv-
ing systems to increase creativity and
to encourage innovative thinking. The
general content of the experiments—the
self-organization capacity of slime mold,
the sustainable creation of construction
materials from mycelium, and the meta-
bolic capacity of algae—has inspired the
architectural discourse around the inte-
gration of living systems for some time.
While these areas of research have been
well covered by scientists, very few archi-
tects have first-hand opportunities to
work with these systems. The book’s
documentation of richly photographed
and illustrated practical experiments is a
powerful vehicle, rendering the scientific
background behind these systems more
accessible. The meticulously designed
book features over a dozen spectacular
high-resolution photographs of biologi-
cal material as part of the documentation
of the bio-experiments. These numerous
full-bleed spreads, which were also part
of the final GrAB exhibition, add greatly to
the legibility of the content and enhance
comprehension through a high aesthetic
appeal. The detailed description of materi-
al testing procedures conducted by third-
party laboratories cements the scientific
rigor of the experiments. More informa-
tion on the collaboration structures of the
interdisciplinary team and the pedagogy of
the “biolab” would spark and help others to
integrate applied research in architectural
practice and education.
All “lab science” conducted in architec-
ture faces the question of scalability and
integration with building systems when
transferred from the controlled environ-
ment of the laborator y to the architectural
or building scale. This is especially the case
when incorporating biologically gener-
ated components and living systems. Built
to Grow attempts to address these issues
by proposing the assembly of material-
sample-sized elements at the scale of
BOOKS
REVIEWS
119
Model Perspectives:
Structure, Architecture
and Culture
Mark R. Cruvellier, Bjørn N.
Sandaker, and Luben Dimcheff
Routledge, Taylor and
Francis Group, 2017
272 Pages
$60.00 (paperback)
An architect’s ability to be creative and
to translate conceptual ideas into spatial
and material intentions is highly prized,
so it is hard to argue that this skill does
not require underpinning by some under-
standing of structural design. Even if, as
Cecil Balmond writes in his description
of his and Rem Koolhaas’s design process
for the Maison à Bordeaux, "Structure in
these situations simply gets in the way,
becoming an enemy of promise" (259).
This quote is taken from Cruvellier,
Sandaker, and Dimcheff’s book, Mod-
el Perspectives: Structure, Architecture
and Culture, which addresses the need
for architects to incorporate structural
understanding into their designs. Unlike
the majority of structural textbooks writ-
ten for architects, these authors have cho-
sen to turn away from the conventional
approach of setting out governing physical
principles. An increasing number of text-
books,1 including a previous collaboration
between Cruvellier and Sandaker, The
Structural Basis of Architecture,
2
already
navigate this territor y.
This new collaboration addresses not
the physical principles but also the spatial
and cultural impact of specific structural
art installations, which do not have the
structural and systemic complexity of
building-scale construction. A few entic-
ing renderings visualize the potential inte-
gration of biological materials and systems
at the building and urban scale. Unfortu-
na t ely, th ey are no t fu r t h e r conte x tua l ized
and do not address the challenges of the
required increase in scale. Other research
groups have addressed the construction
with biologically generated materials at
the building scale, such as Hy-Fi, a myceli-
um-brick tower at MoMA’s PS1,4 and have
integrated living systems in buildings. For
instance, the “Bio-Intelligent Quotient”
(BIQ) House is a five-story apartment
building in Hamburg, Germany, with a
working algae-bioreactor facade that con-
tributes to the holistic energy concept of
the building.
5
While Built to Grow did not
have the funding and resources for work
on full-scale prototypes, conceptualizing
and strategizing how these new materials
and systems can advance full-scale con-
struction will be the next important step
toward “growing” buildings.
Built to Grow: Blending Architecture and
Biology inevitably enriches the current dis-
course on biomimetics in architecture. The
book does not solve the challenge of how
to “grow” architecture, but it presents a
powerful case study of how scientists and
educators could blend the disciplines of
architecture and biology to establish new
interdisciplinary collaborations to over-
come disciplinary constraints. The book
could help leverage the innovative integra-
tion of life science and technology with-
in the academic context of architecture
schools. With this, the book lays the seeds
for true innovation regarding the integra-
tion of nature and living systems in the
built environment—and forecasts a future
in which these achieve an unprecedented
level of integration and synergy.
Gundula Proksch is an Associate Pro-
fessor of Architecture and an Adjunct
Associate Professor of Landscape Archi-
tecture at the University of Washington.
Her current research invesgates sus-
tainable infrastructure for cies, espe-
cially those that apply living systems
to manage ows of water, energy, and
waste. Her tle, Creang Urban Agricul-
tural Systems: An Integrated Approach to
Design, is the rst sourcebook on how to
approach urban agriculture from a sys-
tems perspecve.
1. Jan Knippers and Thomas Speck,
“Design and Construction Principles
in Nature and Architecture,”
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 7, no.
1 (2012): 1.
2. Göran Pohl and Werner Nachtigall,
Biomimetics for Architecture &
Design: Nature, Analogies, Technology
(Heidelberg: Springer, 2015): 7-8.
3. Thomas Speck, Jan Knippers,
and Olga Speck, “Self-X Materials
and Structures in Nature and
Technology: Bio-inspiration as
a Driving Force for Technical
Innovation,” Architectural Design 85,
no. 5 (2015): 34-39.
4. Hy-Fi, MoMA PS1. http://www.
thelivingnewyork.com/.
5. Smart Material Houses, BIQ,
International Building Exhibition IBA
Hamburg. http://www.iba-hamburg.
de/en/themes-projects/the-building-
exhibition-within-the-building-
exhibition/smart-material-houses/
biq/projekt/biq.html.