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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Microbial technologies: Toward a regenerative architecture

appropriate care and attention if they are to engage with us
in a productive, co-constitutive manner (Bellacasa, 2017).
Presently, ALICE exists as a permanent online exhibit
(ALICE, 2019) that can be accessed under the section Bio-

Digital Interface by clicking the Launch Artwork button,
which leads to an animated set of “Mobes.” On selecting
different options from drop-down menus, the environmental
parameters (temperature and pH) and performance (power
output) of a real-world microbial community can be
interrogated that inhabits a permanent MFC array installed
in a scientific laboratory. Depending on how the visitor reads
the health of the microbes, they can respond to the “Mobes”
by feeding them using a remotely operated valve system, or
by speeding up their metabolisms by activating an LED to Figure 6. The installation 999 years 13 sqm (the future belongs to ghosts)
warm them gently. The graphical symbols provide a language is an arts installation embodying a post-human apartment comprising a
bank of microbial fuel cells and digital screens. The installation is by Cecile
where factual propositions (environmental parameters) are B. Evans and Rachel Armstrong for the Is This Tomorrow? exhibition at
represented, and further truths can be inferred to directly, or the Whitechapel Gallery, London. Source: Photograph courtesy of Rolf
by means of a calculating system, which can be overridden Hughes, 2019.
by human intervention.
ALICE also existed as an embodied, real-world
installation that premiered at the Digital Design Weekend,
V&A, London, UK, as part of the London Design Festival
from 24 to 26 September 2021 (Barto, 2021) (Figure 8)
and was installed at the Electromagnetic Field Festival,
from 2 to 5 June 2022 (Electromagnetic Field Camp,
2022). Inviting meaningful human/microbial transactions,
ALICE demonstrated the potential for microbially
powered technologies with bio-digital interfaces to
become creature-like, becoming relatable entities that Figure 7. “Mobes,” from the Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled
do not ooze, stink, or repulse, as an engaging a way Environment (ALICE) website (http://alice-interface.eu) showing
of organizing our daily routines differently, where the dynamic, interactive, and graphical representations of microbes.
microbial/human transactions are more than functional Source: Courtesy of the ALICE consortium, 2021 (screen shot from
website).
but have meaning, value and can be culturally adopted
in life-promoting ways. Since these microbial systems are
not based on simple substitutions for modern building
systems, a set of design principles and protocols for
their uptake and implementation is needed through the
recognition of novel elements like bio-digital interfaces
and an ethics of care that can assist the designer/architect
in developing, innovating, and scaling new applications
that are appropriately situated in an increasing variety of
sites. By incorporating life-bearing microbial technologies
into buildings, the architect’s role is to connect the home
with the biosphere through economic transactions at the
bio-digital interface, which ultimately enhance the overall
life-bearing potential of a site. Figure 8. The Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment
(ALICE) installation, a transparent orb powered by microbes that animate
12. Advancing the potential of microbial light-emitting diodes and iPads was installed during the Digital Design
Week at the Victoria and Albert Museum, September 2021, embodying
technologies the bio-digital platform through the integration of microbial and artificial
intelligences with biological and technical bodies. Source: Courtesy of
To adopt microbially produced materials and building the ALICE consortium: Ioannis Ieropoulos, Julie Freeman, and Rachel
operations into regenerative architectural practices, an Armstrong. Photograph by Julie Freeman. © ALICE consortium.

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.157