DNArch

ABSTRACT:
Deoxyribonucleic acid, or as it is mostly known DNA, is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. Scientists have not only managed to translate this code, but also to manipulate it. Cell characteristics and functions can now be altered, only by inputting different genes in their genetic code.
This scientific revolution could become an important tool in architectural processes, as well. Genetic architecture does not focus only on the organic biomorphic forms, but also on the ways Nature develops itself. Genetic manipulated bio-materials have already been developed and could be introduced in building structures. Moreover, architects like Alberto T. Estévez, are visioning the “living building” which consists of alive elements and finally recreates the environment. Synthetic Biology has already started investigating the development of artificial life-like cells, which can evolve and be self-reproduced and self-maintained. These alive bricks are potential to become the “bricks” of the new architecture organisms…

Recombinant Architecture

Recombinant Architecture examines the deep cultural impact of biotechnologies, including genetic, genomic and transgenic engineering, on the architectural imagination. Recombinant architecture is multiple, and Benjamin Bratton divides it into three different indexes:

a. Algorithmic Bio-morphology, the conception of architectonic forms in the image of genetic, biomorphic corporeality (architecture as physiognomic index of the posthuman),
b. Post bodies, the deliberate fashioning of recombinant bodily forms (genomic entities in the image of architecture) and
c. Genomic spatial systems, the application of artificial biomaterials in the construction of the built environment (architecture as the result of genomic design) - from bodies to buildings and back again.


Algorithmic Bio-morphology
the conception of architectonic forms in the image of genetic, biomorphic corporeality
(architecture as physiognomic index of the posthuman).

Genetic architecture elaborates the epistemic centrality of a now genomically self-concious body as a methological index of structural investigation. The genetic body is considered to name and contain multiple and incongruous animate forms to be given architectural expansion. Each one of those is a figurative principle that could be used so as to extend purely biological processes into more comprehensive bio-technical systems.

According to Karl Chu: "Genetic space is the domain of the set of possible worlds generated and mitigated by the machinic phylum over time. This is the zone of emission radiating out from the decompression of reality, a supercritical explosion of genetic algorithms latent with the capacity to exfoliate out into genetic space. This is not a passive receptacle but an active evolutionary space endowed with dynamical properties and behavior of the epigenetic landscape." In his theory of hyperzoic space, laws of physics that ordinate the play between genotype, phenotype and environment, are themselves evolving, and are condensations of multiple manifest and virtual modulations of genetic-algorithmic enunciation.

Greg Lynn’s Embryological House is considered by Benjamin Bratton “likely the most publicly appreciated genetic architectural project”. It re-imagines dwelling according to genetic form as a first principle of iterative animation. The House adjust itself, reacts and anticipates sunlight and environmental variables according to data received. Bratton believes that not only the Embryological House, but also Genetic Architecture itself, remain beholden to traditional architectural problematics. The House is a genetic metaphor in architecture and although there have been used bodily forms and human morphologies, it remains allegorical of genetic processes. As he comments about it: “It is undecided whether Embryological House is yet genetic architecture, or rather still architecture about genetics.”


Post bodies
the deliberate fashioning of recombinant bodily forms
(genomic entities in the image of architecture).

Recombinant architecture looks to the figure of the artificially designed body (genomically, surgically or otherwise realized) as a cyborgian measure of both structure and inhabitant, while genetic architecture infers or applies genetic grammars into the moment of creating formal architecture. The body is the first architecture: the
habitat that precedes habitation. Architecture looks toward the body for its telos, its image of unified singularity, its continuous historicity. “The condition of embodiment and its material poetics of scale, temperature, solidity and pliability, reproducibility and singularity have located the horizon of design from Vitrivius to Virilio.” (Benjamin Bratton)

Bodies are now imaged as genomic territories, as cities of DNA events, due to the fact that they are sliced into component subvariables and statistical predispositions. Bodies could be considered not only as the first architecture, but also as the first digital architecture. DNA is a binary code which produces forms, the bodily forms produced are themselves architectonic in the highest order. Like all the other naturally occurring architectures these genomic manifestations are incredibly perfect as they are and available modifications.

Bodies could be considered as machines, and machines as bodies, therefore they can be used for new design practices and modifications. A spatial example could be the ear-mouse, in 1995 Dr. Joseph Vacanti, a transplant Surgeon at Harvard, who cultured a human working ear under the skin of a mouse, which was then removed, without harming the mouse. Additionally, the extreme body modification and plastic surgeries could be considered as “a deliberate renovation of the first habitat (of the Self), and of the public production of performative space (of the singular Other)” (Benjamin Bratton). Although in the fields of primary mechanics the ultramodern Body is a highly recombinant form, the ultimate realization of genomic digital auto-fabrication, it is unlikely to happen for legal and ethical reasons.

Recombinant architecture understands the primary figure of bio-materiality, the body, as itself an architectural event, therefore re-designs the built environment both as and with artificially derived biomaterials. ”As ever, buildings become bodies only as bodies become buildings”. Because of the fact that it looks at architecture as genetic bodies, it look at genetic bodies as architecture.


Genomic spatial systems
The application of artificial biomaterials in the construction of the built environment
(architecture as the result of genomic design)

Every day growing database of structural biomaterials, genetic and genomically designed fabric systems, is nowadays widely being explored and finds a lot of applications in medicine, agriculture, military and even conceptual art. At the same time the application of genetic material engineering to the design of physical habitats quite often collapses literal gaps between body and architecture.

First conclusion for creating a durable human habitats might be just a replacement of traditional materials with new artificial biomaterials in the formation of traditional forms, spaces, and programs (box, room, dwelling, house.) But some architects are not satisfied with 'biomorphic chairs,' nor even chairs made of genomically designed materials and try to redefine the shape of the architecture created out of biomaterials. As for example Benjamin H. Bratton from SCI_Arc is describing in his article “The Premise of Recombinant Architecture: One” that “recombinant architecture” gives the premise “ to explode the sitting-machine into new bodies of spatial narrative, new modes of habitat-circuit, new questions, and not just new answers. This redefinition of program 'from the DNA out' will undoubtedly result in several recognizable forms. Buildings, like bodies, have membranes, and the vocabularies of 'skin' should only become more pronounced. Buildings, like bodies, have orifices, and the materialities of interiorization/ exteriorization should likewise become further pronounced, even as bodily-programmatic conventions based on them (kitchen/ bathroom, for example) mutate beyond recognition.”

But the form of architecture based on biomaterials is most probably going to be an outcome of the way this materials will be used which will be based on their specific characteristics. So far biotechnology research is mostly focused on medicine and agriculture which is due to interest of science on fulfilling the fundamental needs of humanity. As a result most of nowadays money is putted on modifications of native plants into improved food crops and findings for miracle drugs. This industries are hopping to have the fastest benefits. That might be a reason why there is so far no specific research in finding biomaterials which could be applied in the construction of human habitats.

http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0304/msg00011.html
http://www.rizoma.net/interna.php?id=151&secao=anarquitextura

Personalized Medicine

Mass customization is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization.

After the successful assembly of the human genome, five years ago, mass customization became possible in the medicine production also, that is personalized medicine. Personalized medicine refers to using information about a person's genetic makeup to tailor strategies for the detection, treatment, or prevention of disease. The human DNA code is a combination of 3 billion letters, this “instruction book” is 99,9% identical between two humans. This 0.1 percent holds clues to the variations among humans in susceptibility to disease. Its discovery sheds new light on the biological basis of disease, which in turn provides new targets for therapies and new options for prevention.

The first application of personalized medicine is Pharmacogenetics, which is the study of inter-individual variations in DNA sequence related to drug response. Science now allows researchers to predict the probability of a drug response based on a person's genetic makeup. It's about getting the right dose of the right drug to the right patient at the right time.

Apart from creating better medication choices and safer dosing options, personalized medicine can offer tests for genes involved in susceptibility to serious diseases, such as breast cancer. By 2010, it is likely that predictive genetic tests will be available for as many as a dozen common conditions, enabling individuals to take preventive steps to reduce their risks of developing disorders. Due to the continuing technological development it is likely that each of us will be able to have our genomes sequenced using microchip technology. That information can then be used to guide prescribing patterns and develop a lifelong plan of health maintenance customized to our unique genetic profiles.

Additionally, HP Labs has used its inkjet technology to make a micro-needle drug patch. These patches contain 400 cylindrical reservoirs connected to a micro-needle. This system is fuelled by a low-power battery and controlled by an embedded microchip that is programmed to heat up any given reservoir to deliver a specific drug. The array is scalable, and it can be designed to contain tens or even hundreds of reservoirs, depending on its intended therapeutic use. Moreover, the patches may be customized to the patient’s needs, or even tiny sensors embedded in a patch could detect when medication is needed and automatically deliver it.




http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19365/page2/
file:///C:/iaac%20works/digital%20tech/CA00078.htm
file:///C:/iaac%20works/digital%20tech/605_genomics.html
file:///C:/iaac%20works/digital%20tech/Personalized_medicine.htm
http://www.pwc.com/techforecast/pdfs/pharmaco-wb-x.pdf
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/news/2007/03/72860
http://www.mlnm.com/about/personalized/index.asp

Biotech and new materiality

We have been through the Age of Electricity, the Machine Age, the Space Age and the Information Age. We continue to celebrate and salivate over the digital tools and the new materials that other have developed for us, but nothing has prepared us for the fundamental changes that are emerging around us. Our age is an age of molecular manipulation, where entirely new form of life are being designed and created. Old distinction between natural and artificial are not longer certain.
Our is an age where we are able to alter the fundamental properties of matter to create an entirely new class of material and devises that are designed at the molecular, and ever subatomic level. This is where nanotechnology intersect with bioengineering, in a field known nanobiotechnology. Some materials, such us polymer scaffolds, provide a porous infrastructure for growing living tissue. Such material and devise introduce fresh possibilities for thinking about the bodily integration of architecture, and they posit exiting opportunities r thinking about architecture as a new form of life.
However, the most immediate evidence of the impact nanotechnology will have on our architecture and our cities, is furnished by the material product that are currently being developed for application.

The Technicolor Brain

The new biotechnologies are being applied in many fields of research. Researchers in Harvard are using illuminating neurons with nearly 100 different colors so as to manage map the human brain. Such a map could help scientists understand not only the early development of the human brain but also some diseases such as autism and schizophrenia.

Saving Memories

Stem-cell transplants have been used so as to improve the injured memory of mice. This can be helpful at illnesses such as Alzheimer's.

Decoding the Human Eye

Artificial retinas that approximate the normal human vision are now in research. These can later be used so as to help blind patients and eventually this kind of technology can be used to send visual information down the optic nerve. Moreover an artificial cornea could be a more effective treatment for the eye damage.

A Better Artificial Skin

Skin cells genetically engineered so as to be resistant to bacteria can not only reduce the likeliness of inflections, but also improve the survival chances among burnt victims.

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip

European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

First complete DNA transplant

After cloning and mutations scientists have transformed a bacteria species into another species. It was done by transplanting a complete set of DNA of a bacteria species and gives a possibility for constructing synthetic life in the coming future.


http://www.yeadon.net/yeadon/support/projects/0511/Year2050.pdf
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/6
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/35

What might these advancements be, and where will they lead us? What are the future material, techniques, and devices that will yield new forms of architecture and new urban environment?

swarm intelligence/architecture

Swarm Intelligence

Swarm Intelligence (SI) is an Artificial Intelligence technique involving the study of collective behaviour in decentralized systems.

Such systems are made up by a population of simple agents interacting locally with one other and with their environment. Although there is typically no centralized control dictating the behaviour of the agents, local interactions among the agents often cause a global pattern to emerge. Examples of systems like this can be found in nature, including ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herding, honey bees, bacteria, and many more.

In contrast to the top-down organization that characterizes many human endeavors, many social species achieve their communal goals using a purely bottom-up approach with no central command-and-control structure.

Swarm technology is proving useful in a wide range of applications including robotics and nanotechnology, molecular biology and medicine, traffic and crowd control, military tactics, and even interactive art. (Particle Swarm Optimization and Ant Colony Optimization)

SI models have many features in common with Evolutionary Algorithms.

The algorithm

Craig Reynolds first compiled the classic flocking algorithm in 1986 in a project simulating the way that birds and other flocking, herding, and schooling animals behave. He called his computer- simulated agents Boids-a contraction of birds and droids. The basic flocking model consists of three simple steering behaviors which describe how an individual boid maneuvers based on the positions and velocities its nearby flockmates:

separation diagram - separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates

alignment diagram - alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates

cohesion diagram - cohesion: steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates

Swarm Architecture

The complexity in our cities is the human interaction, this can be related with the interaction of thousands of different species in the nature. Swarm architecture feeds on data derived from social transactions. Swarm architecture is a true transarchitecture since it builds new transaction spaces, which are at the same time emotive, transactive, interactive and collaborative.

When we look at an urban environment from the point of view of Swarm Architecture we no longer see isolated objects, instead we see objects which have a relation with each other. Swarm-based urban planning is an intriguing and very dynamic design game. It is really challenging for the designer to find the rules that generate excitement in the cities.

http://www.red3d.com/cwr/

http://www.swarmintelligence.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence

http://www.sce.carleton.ca/netmanage/tony/swarm.html

http://www.terraswarm.com/traffic_primer/bpp/index.html

http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/boids/

http://interactivearchitectures.blogspot.com/2007/07/emergent-forms-self-organizing.html

http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=407c2973-51f6-4d55-8c7f-99e60e1f818a&lang=en

G09 Alessio Carta / Vagia Pandou / Krystian Kwiecinski