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Probiotic Cities covers a body of work that is at the forefront of emerging knowledge within architecture, towards designing informed indoor and built environment microbiomes. Sited within the broader field of Bio Design, the book presents highly experimental design research at the intersection of architecture, engineering and microbiology. The book describes work which explores novel strategies towards directly (re)introducing beneficial microbes into buildings and cities. Through discussion of both the work and the processes and methodologies used, it provides a framework to enable designers and practitioners to begin to engage with contemporary human-microbe relationships towards the design of healthy and resilient cities. The book defines a new microbial paradigm for architecture that engages with broader emerging ecological or 'more than human' philosophies for design within the age of the Anthropocene.
List of contents
1. Introduction 2. Architecture for the Holobiont 3. Micro-Scale: Probiotic Materiality 4. Meso-Scale: Probiotic Design Interventions 5. Macro-Scale: Probiotic Cities 6. Conclusion
About the author
Richard Beckett is an architect and Associate Professor of Bioaugmented Design at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL). He is Director of Research Cluster 7 on the BPro Architectural Design master's programme, and leads Studio 3 on the Landscape Architecture course. His research is focused on design operating at the intersection of computation, biofabrication, and microbial ecologies in buildings and cities. His research on probiotic design won the RIBA President's Research Award in 2021. He has built numerous projects and has been exhibited internationally, including at Archilab - 'Naturalising Architecture', the Pompidou Centre and at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum - 'Nature'.
Summary
Probiotic Cities presents highly experimental design research at the intersection of architecture, engineering and microbiology. The book defines a new microbial paradigm for architecture that engages with broader emerging ecological or ‘more than human’ philosophies for design within the age of the Anthropocene.
