Subtle Technologies 2003

My project examines the possibilities for a future environment in which buildings are grown rather than built. Departing from the current fixation on electronic advancements I believe that even greater potential lies in the field of genetic engineering. I envision a totally new environmentally friendly grown habitat based on beneficial giant plants that both shelter and feed a human population. Today we hope that through the applications of genetic engineering we will be able to enter a new age of giant living habitable plants.

I suggest that buildings as we know them, constructed of inanimate building components, would be replaced by giant plants that can both self-assemble through growth and self-destruct by eventually decaying and returning to the earth. Improvements in agricultural techniques have increased crop yields that can now almost feed a worldwide population of over two billion. This has created an unprecedented demand for buildings and this trend will continue. Revolutionary changes in the way we house this ever-increasing population will be needed to meet their demand.

Landmark advances in society have generally come with the introduction of new materials, such as stone, bronze, and iron. All of these are inanimate. I believe that the ability to manipulate living plant material will signal a new age. I see future generations greatly expanding and profiting from the potential of growth by creatively using living plant material.

In this new age, what do plant houses look like? What shape or colour would they have? Can they replicate the functions we now expect from today's buildings? Would they have a system to generate heat and motion? Can this technology be applied to building forms other than housing? Where do we start the designing of the giant plants? Do we begin with existing plant forms and modify them? What plants are most suitable to undergo mutation? Would their introduction create a more affluent society? What are the moral and sociological implications? The questions are endless.

Through my drawings, paintings and sculpture I offer a Jules Verne glimpse into a future garden environment. They depict giant plants that are entered through doors made of spreading fronds like the aperture of a camera. Kitchen walls are shown covered with sprouting vegetables while windows consist of illuminated sections of the wall fed with outside views gathered by roving stem mounted "eyes".

Like the arrival of the Bronze Age or Iron Age the debut of an age of living manipulated material will have profound effects on our present environment economy and form of settlement.

Biography

Tony Paginton practiced conventional architecture in Toronto until 1998, but always had a fascination with curved organic forms. Now through his painting and sculpture he is depicting a new grown architecture that may evolve from genetic engineering.