Page 14 - JCAU-5-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism SynBio-architecture: BioSynth Towers Project

a storage and loading (Figure 6D) and unloading base for listen to music or screens to watch a movie. The BT’s
vehicles compatible with the system. A mucous membrane system of installations is also integrated into the organism
allows such vehicles to adhere to and slide over the skin itself. Rainwater and solar energy are recycled and stored
of the towers. Now, the driver of these vehicles decides to (Figure 6F), thus serving as sources of supply for the future.
access the tower, a hole is opened both in his vehicle and The management of organic waste, wastewater, and air
in the façade, allowing him to penetrate inside the tower. extraction is carried out by means of a network of tubular
Inside the living cells, the floor, walls, and ceiling will vessels that run attached to the structure and membranes
form a single autonomous and intelligent unit (Figure 6E). of the organism.
From a tactile inner skin, privacy, and comfort parameters In sum, the BT Project is a futuristic anticipation of how
typical of a home can be controlled. There is no furniture the merging of architecture, urban planning, and advanced
since it emerges from the inner skin of the cell at the synthetic biology could converge for the sake of sustainable
request of its inhabitants (Figure 7). The same happens building-making in harmony with the rest of the living
with other domestic elements such as loudspeakers to world. The project’s ambition is to make humans think of an

A B C

D E F

Figure 6. Key functionalities genetically programmed in the Biosynthetic Towers. (A) Sunlight capture and CO fixation. (B) Transportation structure.
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(C) Spontaneous garden. (D) Storage membranes. (E) Smart skin. (F) Fluid and energy logistics (see text for explanation)

Figure 7. Towards all-organic human habitats. DNA-based programmability of multi-scale biological development empowers synthetic biology not only to
engineer large living structures but also specific functionalities at the dimension optimized for human use. This involves, for example, emergence of shapes
and objects usable as typical pieces of furniture

Volume 5 Issue 3 (2023) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0619