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LONDON DESIGN BIENNALE
Somerset House
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5 - 29 June 2025
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This exhibition took place before the symposium to highlight innovative biomaterials projects and research from leading experts, academia, and industries in the field.
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Project team: Living Construction group at Northumbria University & Beckett Lab at UCL
PIONEERING BIOMATERIALS
Academia and Industry Convergence
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22 Jan - 14 Feb 2025
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This exhibition took place before the symposium to highlight innovative biomaterials projects and research from leading experts, academia, and industries in the field.
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Project team: Living Construction Group, Northumbria University
EDINBURGH SCIENCE FESTIVAL
Growing Home Exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland
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30 March - 14 April 2024
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Standing three meters high, this impressive sculpture, devised and created by the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, is made from biomaterials. Incorporating wool and mycelium to give it strength and stability, the piece shows the research into the future of biomaterials as a part of the wider built environment.
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Project team: Jane Scott, Ben Bridgens, Romy Kaiser, Armand Agraviador, Oliver Perry, Dilan Ozkan, Josie Hackney Barber, Lucy Matthews, Keegan Murray.
![FOR PRINTING_BIOGENIC CONSTRUCTION POSTER [CMYK].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9226a5_03b5c645e35f4ee7bba928926d364f63~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_1958,w_4961,h_4030/fill/w_603,h_490,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/FOR%20PRINTING_BIOGENIC%20CONSTRUCTION%20POSTER%20%5BCMYK%5D.jpg)
BIOGENIC CONSTRUCTION
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20-28 March 2024
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Biomineralization is nature’s method of creating durable, robust materials using minimal energy. This process not only produces materials of remarkable complexity but also intelligently designs them to adapt and remodel in response to environmental changes. Harnessing this capability presents a significant challenge for the fields of material science, biotechnology, and design. Our exhibition highlights efforts within the Living Construction Theme of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) to pioneer advanced biomineralization techniques employing microbes, allowing design on multiple scales. The exhibits will explore early-stage research into self-healing materials and materials that can remodel themselves under stress. Additionally, we will present more advanced developments in biological cement through innovative casting methods and cements capable of sequestering CO2. The exhibition will also feature commercial applications of this technology, which aims to develop low-carbon bio-composites by repurposing industrial waste.
FUTURE OBSERVATORY ​
London Design Museum
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20 November 2023- 31 August 2024
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A team of researchers from The Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment are exhibiting their latest BioKnit prototype, a catenary arch that spans over two metres, at the Future Observatory Design Research Exhibition in London. The arch demonstrates the design possibilities of a biofabrication system that brings together 3D knitted fabric formwork with mycocrete; a unique formulation of mycelium composite, developed by the researchers for use with soft textile moulds.
The BioKnit Arch is a bespoke site-specific structure designed to fit the exact dimensions of the Design Museum gallery. There are significant challenges in working with such precision using new biohybrid materials, however, the accuracy is achieved through a process that integrates parametric modelling, biotechnology and digital fabrication of knitted modules.
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The research proposes applications for BioKnit in non-load bearing applications in buildings, for internal linings and to shape space. The ability to produce new geometries, curved surfaces and organic forms is very compelling for future architecture as well as new aesthetics and new tactile experiences that emerge from mycelium coming together with textiles at an architectural scale.
MORE WITH LESS
Reimagining Architecture for a Changing World
22 April - 10 Sep 2023
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The Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment is creating ‘The Living Room’ – a soft, cosy, snug internal space with thick sculpted walls. The structure itself is grown from fungal mycelium, sawdust, and wool. This innovative technique uses organic, locally available waste materials and microbial processes to radically reduce the environmental impact of construction while asking us to reconsider the relationship between the built and natural environments.
17th VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE | Italian Virtual Pavilion Sezione del Padiglione Italia
23 May - 21 November 2021
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Can we grow a city?
Our group is exploring methods for harnessing growth of micro-organisms at a range of scales from the gene buildings and building components, developing a library of fabrication strategies and biological materials including materials that are made of living cells; materials which are made by living cells; materials that are induced changes to the cells environment and materials which are made active by the incorporation of living cells.
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In collaboration with Martyn Dade-Robertson, Monika Brandic Lipinska, Ahmet Topcu,Thora Arnardottir, Meng Zhang, Sunbin Lee and Emily Birch
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL, BIODESIGN HERE AND NOW
Open Cell, London
19 September 2019
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As an architecture collective of PhD researchers specialising in living technologies for the future, our mission is to challenge conventional methods of construction by proposing an ecocentric alternative. We believe that the buildings of the future should be living, breathing and inclusive of nature.
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In collaboration with Thora H Arnardottir, Assia Stefanova, and Sunbin Lee with the help of fabrication specialist Ed Robinson.
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