Living Construction
Buildings make use of materials provided to us by nature but usually after the organism that created them has died. Nature, however, offers a wide range of fabrication strategies creating materials of complexity with little energy input and efficient use of resources. Our video explores methods for harnessing growth of microorganisms at a range of scales from the gene to buildings, developing new fabrication strategies and biological materials including materials that are made of living cells; materials which are made by living cells; materials that are induced changes to the cells environment and materials which are made active by the incorporation of living cells.
This joint project has been delivered by the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment led by Newcastle University and Northumbria Univeristy, produced by Martyn Dade-Robertson, Meng Zhang, Thora Arnardottir, Sunbin Lee, Dilan Ozkan, Monika Lipinska and Ahmet Topcu.