Hybrid Bio-Based Architectural Systems: Living Organisms and Upcycled Waste Materials for 3D Printing and Robotic Deposition

In line with the 2023 CAADRIA conference theme, Human-Centric, this research aims to promote cultural and societal shifts towards climate justice, and equitable approaches to sustainability, by promoting the use of natural systems and locally sourced, upcycled materials in the design and making of architectural systems. This research paper and project, titled Hybrid Bio-Based Architectural Systems, explores possibilities for designing and fabricating architectural systems that merge living organisms, upcycled waste, and digital technologies. The paper focuses on three living organisms; fungi, algae, and bacteria, and the use of upcycled waste materials as substrates for growing mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi. Through a series of physical experiments and prototypes, new hybrid models of living and non-living materials are formulated as extrudable pastes for 3D printing and robotic deposition. Each 3D printed component, which aggregate to form a larger assembly, is inoculated and grown with mycelium. The research reframes concepts of ecological design, as collaborations with living organisms, and symbiotic relationships between human and non-human species, that challenges traditional and conventional notions of designing and making architecture in the post-Anthropocentric era.