Page 13 - JCAU-5-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Working with the energies of life

and microbial desalination cells. The importance of sediment, as well as attract other bacterial groups, which
5
the MFC is that it is the only type of BES that produces appear to benefit from the electrical connection to oxygen
harvestable amounts of electricity that is in the goldilocks (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2015). The electroactive microbes
region for household use – not too much, not too little, but that gather around cable bacteria form larger communities
(in an emerging era of low power electronics) it is just right. that generate specialized structures (nanowires, cables, and
Potentially, then, MFC arrays can process household waste membranes), which electronically interact and modulate
to create a currency of energy through ion and electron complex metabolic networks at cellular and multicellular
flow that is capable of supporting aspects of modern levels. Being so large, cable bacteria offer a workable
lifestyles based on mechanistic low-power energy systems, structural system that can be designed and engineered
in ways that can incorporate the life-promoting impacts of to strategically channel the flows of microbial electricity
microbial systems. with more precision than is currently possible using
The types of apparatus that enable technologies that biofilms (Bjerg et al., 2023). Essentially, these microbes
work within biological limits are exemplified by projects can be thought of as “living wires” that are compatible with
and installations that I have coordinated, namely, the Living traditional electronics, but also provide ways of accessing
Architecture project, the installation 999 years (the future the commons of energies in a more directed way than can
belongs to ghosts) and the Active Living Infrastructure: currently be achieved with electrogenic biofilms.
Controlled Environment prototype (Figure 7). All these Although microbes are not biological equivalents of
demonstrators are discussed in this issue and will not be electronic circuits, their functions will likely be compared
further detailed here (Armstrong, 2023b). to and compatible with low power versions of classical
electronics, for example, transistor, resistor, and conductor.
6. Strategically accessing the commons of However, their biology also involves multiple, concurrent
energies through microbial electronics (metabolic) activities, for instance, electron transfer systems,

The discovery of cable bacteria in marine sediments is a and coupled redox reactions that generate material and
revolutionary finding, as they are centimeters long and informatic changes, such as metabolism, growth (nanowires
can be seen with the naked eye. Cable bacteria mediate an and cables), color change, and so on (Atkinson et al., 2023),
electron current and can induce geochemical changes in the with the potential to offer additional features and functions
to components that are not possible in conventional
5 A microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a biological electronics (e.g., self-repair, secreting insulation to prevent
electrochemical system that implements the use of electro- loss of signal) (Figure 8). These metabolic networks (redox
active bacteria to power desalination of water in situ, potentials) and electronic components (resistors, capacitors,
resourcing the natural anode and cathode gradient of and transistors) are also likely to be embedded and
the electro-active bacteria and thus creating an internal responsive to their environment, rendering their properties
supercapacitor. plastic, situated, dynamic, unstable, and robust. With the
potential to work synergistically with the environment,
microbial electronics will recognize their surroundings
and work with them as a processing adjunct, rather than
an extraction site, establishing a fundamental change in the
relationship between metabolism (matter in a state of flow),
materials production and energy performance. The advent
of a new field of electroactive materials that secures access
to the commons of energies, with concurrent capabilities in
information processing, material transformation, and the
use and distribution of energy, also lends to the possibility to
be further optimized through additive manufacturing and
control engineering, in the quest to establish a biodegradable
platform for sustainable electronics with complex functions.
7. A new thermoeconomics for the home

To create the conditions for a regenerative society, the
Figure 7. Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment installation, commons of energies must be managed through a new
a network of LEDs and iPads powered by 15 MFCs, as an autonomous
self-powering system. Source: Photo courtesy of Rachel Armstrong, thermoeconomics so that decisions can be made through
Dunkirk Triennale, June 2023 a different framework for considering the dynamics and

Volume 5 Issue 4 (2023) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0862