Vers Une Symbiotecture

‘Writing has nothing to do with meaning It has to do with landsurveys & cartographs including the mapping of countries yet to come’ -Gilles Deleuze

FOREWORD As we stand on the precipice, peering collectively into the dark prospect of a world in ruins, there seems little sense in looking back. A clamour of voices calls for forward thinking solutions. A sharp change in trajectory from the steep and ever-accelerating avalanche of so-called progress. In the splitsecond moment before a catastrophe, our fight or flight instincts leave little room to remember the past. In these clouded moments of panic, if we were to try to recall the convoluted and indeterminate path which had led us here, might we misremember? Perhaps the details of the past might begin to blur in that same haze which rolls over the mind at dawn when we first wake from sleep.

How might our world differ had we come to realise sooner that Homo Sapiens are not the only species who make the world. Had we sooner confronted our role within the delicately balanced ecosystems of a fragile planet, what might we have done differently?

May our ancestors have come to realise this balance long before us, and simply failed to pass the knowledge down? The absence of ‘civilisations’ may have been a conscious choice rather than a failure of discovery. Perhaps a chapter of Vitruvius’ writings went missing during the many centuries the texts were transcribed and preserved in the monasteries of Europe. Had its guardians been south American worshippers of the teonanacatl rather than a Judeo-Christian god, would it have been better preserved. How might we have made the world if Adam Smith had proclaimed not the powers of the invisible hand but that of the microscopic root, only made invisible by our failure to look beneath the surface of a world which we claimed sole dominion over. Might the neo-classical economics which transformed the history of the 20th Century have been replaced by Neo-classical ecology. Would we find ourselves in a world united, rather than divided if Friedrich Nietzsche’s ubermenschen had in fact been myco-menschen, praising the transformative powers of collaboration and polyphony over individualism. Had Liet Kynes tread through the forests of Finland rather than the dunes of Arrakis, might our ambitious visions of progress be changed?

Such is the delicate precarity of life on earth that the rational mind would think not. But does this mean one cannot spare a moment to dream in our final days. Do fungi dream that we might build them electric trees?

Probably not. But did anyone think to ask?

PILOKI

The first principle of Symbiotecture is simple, and may sound familiar.

Raising living spaces & rooms off of the ground will create space beneath the building for nature, both wild and cultivated Wilding structural footings which we shall term ‘piloki’, after the slender stalk-like ‘enoki’

mushroom. Architecture must have a minimal impact on the landscape and ecosystems below. By minimising points of contact with the ground and the width of foundations required we leave the ancient mycelial networks of soil undamaged. Retaining one our key allies for carbon sequestration and helping to support the continued growth and fertility of other plant life, through the fungal decomposition of waste material on the ground and the beneficial impact of mycorhizzal fungi.

MYCELIAL NETWORKS

Buildings should harness the natural potential of mycelium for collecting and computing information and transporting materials between areas of surplus and deficit. Interwoven mycelial networks could utilise fruiting bodies to collect and process information on areas of high humidity and heat within a building and move water around accordingly, with low energy costs. It may take years to develop appropriate fungal species and networks to do so, making research and investment key.

THE GARDEN SKIN

The external facade of a building offers an opportunity to work symbiotically with nature. As the entry point of solar energy, light and air currents into the building, this is the site where we can harness the power of fungi and plant life. Solar shading in the summer from plants which die back in the winter can provide passive environmental control and we can harness the excess energy of the sun to cultivate crops and grow plants for pleasure which play a role in filtering and cleaning the air in the building.

THE LIVING FACADE

Architecture should act not only as a site for humans to inhabit, but should operate as a habitat for species of plants and animals also. The increasingly urbanised world will result in severe loss of habitat and the extinction of various vital species if we do n ot urbanise symbiotically with the other species around us.

Through design it will be possible to create beneficial relationships with other productive species that make the world. Productive species like bees, termites and traditional livestock could live close by.

MACHINE FOR GROWING

Agricultural Production should not be alienated and placed far away from our spaces of living, leading to vastly inflated transport costs and rapidly accumulating emissions. Instead we should consider all architecture as opportunities and machines for growth. Building facades, intermediary areas and landscapes should be utilised productively for as much of the year as possible. Architects can empower residents & building users to seize control of their own means of production with considered design.

‘Writing has nothing to do with meaning It has to do with landsurveys & cartographs including the mapping of countries yet to come’ -Gilles Deleuze