Page 49 - JCAU-6-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Storytelling in regenerative architecture

Note: All images by the author (Figures 1–9) are its findings in galleries, biennales, and triennials
intended to evoke the setting and atmosphere of internationally and across a range of publications and
the short story The Bungalow, published at the media outlets. This paper is authored by one of the original
1
end of the article. As such they do not illustrate members of EAG, who brought expertise in creative and
2
specific arguments in the text. critical writing, dramaturgy, and sound art to the group’s
design research, helping create an interdisciplinary
1. Introduction blend of science, design, pedagogy, art, poetry, audio-
“[...] we watch the landscape for signs that might visual media, and performance. The European Union-
tell us something more of the something less we funded research project Living Architecture was highly
sense inside.” praised by evaluators for repeatedly reaching out to wider
audiences by presenting its findings in cultural venues.
3
- The Transformation of Nature by George B. More recently, Xenomorphic Energy: Necromantic Orchid
Moore (Poetry Magazine, May 1992, p.88)
1 For an overview of recent Experimental Architecture
group outputs, see Armstrong, R., Hughes, R., &
Ferracina, S. Monstering: a transdisciplinary method
for an unstable world. Palgrave Commun 6, 60 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0426-3
2 See, for example, my entry in Cocker, E. et al Practice
Sharing II (2023) https://www.researchcatalogue.net/
view/1538250/2166723/8701 (accessed 9 January 2024)
3 The Living Architecture (LIAR) project ran from April
2016 to April 2019. Funded (€3.2 million) by the
Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under
EU Grant Agreement no. 686585, the project brought
together experts from the University of Newcastle,
UK; the West of England (UWE Bristol); Trento, Italy;
the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid;
LIQUIFER Systems Group, Vienna, Austria; and Explora
Biotech, Venice, Italy. Living Architecture proposes a new
infrastructure for buildings — our homes and workspaces
— that uses “living” technologies to replace some of the
tasks currently performed by machines, such as electricity
production. The aim is to reduce, and eventually eliminate,
our dependency on fossil fuel-based systems, particularly
as the built environment is currently responsible for 40%
of our total carbon emissions. Not only do these “living
Figure 1. Bungalow I. Source: Original work by the author technologies” generate useful “housework” but they also
reduce and ultimately eliminate household waste, using
Regenerative architecture has been defined as “the our discards and excrements as “fuels” to feed the incredible
practice of engaging the natural world as the medium organic processes of microorganisms that can transform
for and generator of architecture. Living systems on the them into useful substances. The LIAR infrastructure
is a strategically coordinated system of microbes that
site become the building blocks of the structure, built in are housed in specific bioreactors. It takes the form of a
harmony with the overall ecosystem” (Gattupalli, 2023). freestanding, next-generation, selectively programmable
It aims to design sustainable, resilient, and regenerative bioreactor complex composed of microbe-specific
built environments that enhance and restore ecological building blocks (microbial fuel cell, algae bioreactor, and a
genetically modified processor). Each of these bioreactor
systems. Its ambitions are essentially restorative — seeking types possesses a specific “metabolism,” or the capacity to
to temper the material excesses of extractive construction transform one set of substrates into another. When they
by making more environmentally-conscious choices, are sequenced spatially, the waste products of one system
leading to results that are not only more “sustainable” can become the starting point for another. Through the
but also work to regenerate surrounding ecosystems. configuration of both microbial “programs” (wild type
and “synthetic” organisms) and bioreactor sequencing,
In this emerging field, there are a growing number of particular kinds of work can be carried out (Armstrong
formal educational programs focused specifically on & Hughes, 2022). Using our own metabolic activities as
regenerative architecture. The Experimental Architecture a starting point (consuming resources, producing waste
Group (EAG), founded in 2016 by Rachel Armstrong matter, and moving around), the bioreactor complex
transforms our liquid wastes (urine, grey water) into useful
at Newcastle University, has developed regenerative products (cleaned water, electricity, and biomolecules)
architecture research from its inception, disseminating while also removing pollutants (nitrous gases).

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1335