Bacterial Hygromorphs: Experiments into the Integration of Soft Technologies into Building Skins

Abstract

The last few years have seen an increase in the interest to bring living systems into the process of design. Work with living systems, nonetheless, presents several challenges. Aspects such as access to specialists’ labs, samples of living systems, and knowledge to conduct experiments in controlled settings become barriers which prevent designers from developing a direct, material engagement with the material. In this paper, we propose a design methodology which combines development of experiments in laboratory settings with the use of what we call material proxies, which refer to mate- rials that operate in analogue to some of the behaviors observed in the target organism. We will propose that combining material proxies with basic scientific experimentation constitutes a form of direct material engagement, which encourages richer exploration of the design domain.