Abstract
Scientific advances at the turn of the new millennium brought radical new insights into just how microbial our world is and the extent to which microbes influence our lives: from notions of the body (human microbiome); to their distribution in our living spaces (microbiome of the built environment); playing an integral role in ecosystems services in our cities (urban microbiome) and are fundamental to biogeochemical cycles—our world is irreducibly microbial. This paper asks what it means to dwell and design in such times and proposes an ethics for biodesign: which employs the insights and tools of the biotechnological age to generate new, ecologically beneficial forms of design, where microbes are the new “workhorses.” Exemplified in the Living Architecture, ALICE and IM-CITY projects—these biodesign case studies explore how working with microbes can help us contribute significantly to the (re)enlivening of the world by establishing a culture of life—based on mutual thriving.
Keywords
microbes, ethics, biodesign, culture of life
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.144
Citation
Armstrong, R. (2022) Biodesign for a culture of life: Of microbes, ethics, and design, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.144
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Biodesign for a culture of life: Of microbes, ethics, and design
Scientific advances at the turn of the new millennium brought radical new insights into just how microbial our world is and the extent to which microbes influence our lives: from notions of the body (human microbiome); to their distribution in our living spaces (microbiome of the built environment); playing an integral role in ecosystems services in our cities (urban microbiome) and are fundamental to biogeochemical cycles—our world is irreducibly microbial. This paper asks what it means to dwell and design in such times and proposes an ethics for biodesign: which employs the insights and tools of the biotechnological age to generate new, ecologically beneficial forms of design, where microbes are the new “workhorses.” Exemplified in the Living Architecture, ALICE and IM-CITY projects—these biodesign case studies explore how working with microbes can help us contribute significantly to the (re)enlivening of the world by establishing a culture of life—based on mutual thriving.