Living Systems Thinking and Making: 3D Printing with Mycelium and Upcycled Waste Materials

Abstract

This research project looks towards new possibilities for designing and making architectural elements and systems with living organisms, upcycled waste, and 3D printing technologies. In line with the 2021 ACSA conference theme, EMPOWER, this research seeks the empowerment of architecture to address our current climate crisis by advancing processes of designing and making architecture with living systems. Through a collaboration with living organisms, advances in symbiotic relationship between humans and non-humans are formed, and new possibilities emerge for architectural design, fabrication, and speculation, that challenge traditional and conventional methods of design and making in a post-human world. The project seeks opportunities for a paradigm shift in architectural design, from ‘systems thinking’ to ‘living systems thinking’, offering new possibilities and raising questions regarding approaches to architectural design and fabrication. How can we (humans) empower non-human organisms to collaborate within a design and fabrication process? What are the opportunities for architectural design when we shift from ‘systems thinking’ to ‘living systems thinking’? How can we embed growing, living, ‘vibrant matter’ [1] in the process of making? How can we advance and improve upon the methods in which we collect and upcycle waste materials that are biodegradable to increase positive impacts on our environment? Can we rethink what we discard, to reduce the use of plastics and other environmentally harmful materials, and advance ecological practices in architecture? The project seeks to address these questions through applied research, and the development of techniques and workflows that demonstrate a method for advancing methods of making. This work and research encompasses a range of topics including computational design, living systems, waste, upcycling, circular economies, bio-design and bio-aesthetics.