Page 15 - JCAU-5-3

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

alternative way of understanding how we live in the cities, and such studies cannot advance toward the determination of
how we move within them, especially during uncertain times complex shapes in woody plants, including their aerial parts.
like today. Obviously, the BT project is not the only one that The same applies to plant growth rates. As this quality is also
has dealt with similar issues. The Supplementary File provides genetically encoded, chances are that plants engineered with
a list a non-exhaustive inventory of architectural initiatives superior abilities of CO fixation and biomass production
2
and undertakings that align well with the philosophy of the (a super-active research field at this time; Tan et al., 2022)
BT project. They are about letting nature lead the solutions can be also designed for the erection of organic buildings
for healing the damage that unchecked technological within a sensible period of time. The same for each of the
development has inflicted on our common planetary functionalities are indicated in Figure 6. Obviously, we
habitat—and to which traditional construction methods have are not there yet in the scenario sketched in Figure 7. But
so significantly contributed (Habert et al., 2020). the time is ripe for considering it seriously and giving it a
chance, not just as a virtue but as a vital need.
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgments
We live in a time characterized by what has been called a
2
polycrisis (environmental, societal, and migratory), along The authors are indebted to architect Manuel Belso for his
with unprecedented technical and scientific advances renders of Figures 5 and 7 and to Isabel Andrés for help
that enable us to revisit our interplay with the natural with the English style.
environment, both as an ethical mandate as well as a necessity
for survival. The early 2000s witnessed the onset of synthetic Funding
biology, a veritable game changer in the way we leverage Research in Víctor de Lorenzo’s Laboratory is
biological systems for human sake. In reality, synthetic funded by SYNBIO4FLAV (H2020-NMBP-TR-
biology opens an unprecedented two-way, win-win channel IND/H2020-NMBP-BIO-2018-814650), the MIX-UP
between engineering (which also encompasses technology- (MIX-UP H2020-BIO-CN-2019-870294), the NYMPHE
based architecture) and the living world. On the one hand, (HORIZON-CL6-2021- UE 101060625), Contracts of the
synthetic biology lays out a way to reprogram biology by European Union, the BIOSINT-CM (Y2020/TCS- 6555),
accessing and rewriting DNA sequences following the logic and the Project of the Comunidad de Madrid - European
of electric, mechanical, and computational engineering Structural and Investment Funds (FSE, FECER).
(Andrianantoandro et al., 2006). On the other hand, the same
channel makes available evolutionary mechanisms (a kind of Conflict of interest
natural computation) that living entities exploit for adapting The authors declare they have no competing interests.
and proliferating in a dynamic environment. By learning
such a biological language, we can move from domination Author contributions
to partnership with the natural world for a sustainable, albeit
quite different, future. Given that the construction sector has Conceptualization: Víctor de Lorenzo, Miguel de la Ossa
one of the major impacts on climate change and environmental Writing - original draft: Víctor de Lorenzo, Miguel de la
deterioration, it is urgent to develop the conceptual and Ossa
technical tools for making the above-discussed BTs projects Writing - review & editing: Víctor de Lorenzo, Miguel de
(and others listed in Supplementary File) a reality. la Ossa
While the proposal of all-organic, living buildings is Ethics approval and consent to participate
indeed futuristic, the challenge is by no means fictional or Not applicable.
a mere fantasy. One can make a list of gaps in our current
knowledge of plant and animal developmental programs Consent for publication
necessary to develop each of the biological components Not applicable.
and focus on research efforts in filling them. While full
morphologies of plants are still difficult to program, there Availability of data
has been considerable progress in recent years in reshaping Not applicable.
root (Morris et al., 2017) and branching (Nicolas et al., 2022)
architecture with rationally designed genetic circuits (Brophy Further disclosure
et al., 2022; Kocaoglan et al., 2023). There is no reason why
A preliminary version of the Biosynthetic Towers Project
2 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/ was submitted to the 2021 edition of the eVolo architectural
polycrisis-adam-tooze-historian-explains/ contest (https://www.evolo.us/).

Volume 5 Issue 3 (2023) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0619