base

Plant Anima is an ongoing project to study the transformation of tools of biotechnology into devices of culture. It proposes a new inhabitable architecture generated through the invention of unique plant organisms that is wired yet vegetable, responsive yet independent, artificial and alive.

The development of this design process involves the creation of plant organisms to produce a unique and responsive “natural” architecture. These methodologies engage the design of the characteristics and interrelationships of the organisms themselves through the use of genetic organic design technologies to create a living and unified architectural ecosystem that behave as a single organism.

Through this new design methodology, the work also defines a new relationship between the architect, the architectural means of production and the generated creation. A new “genetic” architect can develop unique organisms by manipulating strands of DNA and then watching the organism grow itself. Moreover, this process would never become static or complete, but through direct genetic intervention and redefinition continue to grow, adapt and respond to creative desire. The project therefore begins to question the psychological implications of both its experience and its creative production. The physical scale of the project offers an experience of total immersion; an immersion that highly sensitizes our physical bodies to their immediate surroundings as well as providing access to ecstatic psychological experience.

New architectural forms and experiences are developed through the design of this inhabitable vegetable territory at different scales from the air, its surface and its cavities. This ongoing research will be represented through classifications of investigation beginning with the initial projects and research conducted at the Microbiology Department of the University College of London in England, the Gold Prize Award winning entry for the Osaka International Design Festival 1999 exhibited in Osaka in 2000, and through independent research and production for gallery and museum showings.

A sample case will be presented; a floating, inhabitable living landscape inserted into an obsolete industrial harbour. An automated infrastructure is supplied with genetically engineered “macrophytes”; macrocellular organisms derived from cyanobacteria and seaweed algaes. These single-celled organisms are genetically combined with DNA characteristics of both local and foreign plant organisms to invent new species with engineered site-specific behaviours and responses. These new creations are responsive plants with filaments that pull towards or retreat away from a presence, or trace the movements of fish schools in phosphorescence as they spiral beneath the floating surface. The resulting designs are transferred for self-reproduction in a series of linked greenhouses. From here the environmental distribution of the “macrophytes” is carried out through a floating pressurized cable network where a chemical catalyst is sent through the network triggering organism reproduction to change from dividing single-cells into a system of filamentous branching plants that grow into a complex and diverse woven surface. This infrastructure also allows for a continuous genetic reprogramming of the architecture.

Stills and animations will be presented which represent studies of behaviours and responses. These experiential simulations include architectural organism growth patterns, surface scarring and healing, and responsive relationships to inhabitation. Simulations are developed with the tools of genetic algorithm programming and digital animation.

The context of the project is twofold. One is of technological positivism, in that its goal is to expound the boundaries of architectural design and invention and allow new dimensions of experience to emerge. However, the artificial nature of its pursuit lends poignancy, for while the plant anima is presented as an organism that can be designed within positivist ideals, it remains in the long term ultimately unpredictable, alive, artificial, and wild.

Biography

Aniko Meszaros’ work involves the design of complex environments comprised of responsive and metamorphosing elements, both natural and artificial. Investigation into the creation of this architecture has been conducted though research into the implementation of the ingredients of natural organic and inorganic phenomena (insects, plants, rainstorms) combined with the technologies of immersive digital interface, artificial intelligence and biotechnological engineering.

She received degrees in Environmental Studies and Architecture from the University of Waterloo in Canada and her Masters with distinction from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, UK. In addition to roles as academic lecturer and critic, she is currently collaborating with a Toronto-based visualization software company to develop immersive sensorial user interface systems. www.anikoland.com