Living Architecture. LIAR

Living Architecture (LIAR) is a modular bioreactor-wall, based on the operational principles of microbial fuel cell technology and synthetic ‘consortia’ of microbes. LIAR is conceived as a next-generation selectively-programmable bioreactor that can: i) be an integral component of human dwelling; ii) extract valuable resources from waste water and air; iii) generate oxygen, produce proteins and fibre. Its operational principles are grounded in distributed sensing, decentralised autonomous information processing, high-degree of fault-tolerance and distributed actuation and reconfiguration. Applications within (existing) urban systems can include: i) customizable micro-agriculture for installation in domestic, public (schools, hospitals) and office environments: ii) the improvement of building performance through resilience and resource recycling; iii) a mediator between the built environment and local ecosystems. Applications within urban systems are a form of customizable, programmable micro-agriculture for installation in domestic, public (schools, hospitals) and office environments. The system has far reaching impacts on building performance (resilience, resource recycling) manufacturing and design with ecosystems that comprise entangled relations between the techno and biospheres. The project establishes: i) Protocols for ‘synthetic ecosystem’ design and engineering; ii) Foundational concepts for computationally processing, recycling, remediating and synthesising valuable compounds from waste water; iii) Transferable principles for the construction of living architecture.

This high risk project is funded by the European Commission under H2020 as FET 686585. This project is leaded by the University of Newcastle.