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

tools have driven the progress of the field from the trial- potential to move architecture toward a different paradigm
and-error approaches of the pre-scientific times to the (Dade-Robertson, 2016).
contemporary power of modern building materials and
impressive computer-assisted design (CAD; Szalapaj, 2. Biology challenging the straight line
2013), building information modeling (BIM; Abdelhameed, For many centuries, Western culture viewed humans
2018) and artificial intelligence (AI; Debauche et al., 2020) as fundamentally distinct from and superior to the rest
platforms. These tools enable robust prediction of basically of the natural world. Given this belief, it was natural for
any feature of a building much before it is materialized. But the primary motivation behind architectural pursuits
what we could call the purposely conquest of the 3D space to be the desire to control and exploit any available
is not exclusive to human-made architecture. The same resources for our own benefit. Biological items, especially
process is reminiscent of another course ultimately driven trees and other plant products were just seen as mere
by the same logic: the necessity of biological systems to construction materials, whether by themselves or in
arise and develop in a physical scenario with clear in or combination with stones and other building assets. Their
out boundaries, specialized functional assignments, and merge with the scientific, mathematical geometry started
a coherent geometry for optimizing performance and by Euclid (Sbacchi, 2001) originated some of the most
durability (Lewis, 2008). Note that—unlike human-made representative examples of classical Western architecture
buildings—such biological principles apply through (e.g., the Parthenon; Figure 1). It is remarkable that such
different scales, from subcellular organization to very large architectural icons are altogether governed by pure straight
structures (trees, termite nests, and beehives). Yet, while lines and flat surfaces, which allow for designing a precise,
human-made architecture is most often the result of a predictable connectivity between the parts, definition of
rational planning, what we may call biological architectures the boundaries, and an accurate description of the final
are the outcome of billions of years of evolution. But can construct. Moreover, building materials were based on
each other learn from their respective solutions to not hard construction components and intended to be durable
altogether unrelated challenges? Given similar trials, it for a long time in the same shape they were first put
cannot come as a surprise that outcomes converge whether together. All these features are in sharp contrast with the
they are rationally planned or evolutionarily selected biological occupation of the environmental space. Straight
as the result of the random exploration of a solution lines and purely geometrical shapes are very unusual in
space—as characteristically done by biological systems (de live systems at the macroscopic level (Figure 1). With some
Lorenzo, 2018). exceptions, biological objects are generally made of soft,
The interplay between technological design and live flexible, and even plastic matter. Furthermore, they tend
systems is the subject of what is now called synthetic
biology, an interpretive frame of biological objects from an A B
engineering perspective (Andrianantoandro et al., 2006;
de Lorenzo & Danchin, 2008). The key angle of synthetic
biology is the assumption that the mechanical, physical,
and chemical rationales that make live systems work as they
do follow the same relational logic that engineers (electric,
mechanical, computational) adopt for building complex
objects (de Lorenzo, 2018). The advantage being that
every biological property, including the development of C D
physical structures in a 3D space, is ultimately determined
by DNA. The main consequence of this state of affairs is
that extant biological objects are already programmed
through the sequences encoded in such DNA, which acts
as the software of any live system (Danchin, 2008). The
corollary of this narrative is that the growing affordability
of DNA synthesis enables us to program live entities at
our will (Gilbert & Ellis, 2018). We would need to qualify Figure 1. Geometry-driven architecture versus biological occupation of
each of these assertions, but in general, the idea that the 3D space. (A) The Parthenon is the most iconic example of historical
one can program multi-scale biological systems with an buildings dominated by straight lines. (B) Center of Computer and data
Science, Boston University, designed by KPMB Architects, an apotheosis
engineering logic opens amazing opportunities to develop of rectangular forms (credit: Ahmed Khalil). (C) A termite nest (credit:
new products, assets, and–at long last–concepts with a Australian Museum). (D) The roots of a banyan tree (Chennai, India)

Volume 5 Issue 3 (2023) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0619