Architecture and Unconventional Computing

The Architecture and Unconventional Computing conference brings innovative architects together with scientists working with new technologies that are capable of selfassembly and higher-order organization.

These advanced technologies form the basis of a new, realizable vision of architecture underpinned by a new class of materials whose properties are familiar to the world of synthetic biology, namely programmability and self-organization. These materials are generated through a novel ‘bottom-up’ approach to both synthetic biology and the construction of materials. The outcome is the production of buildings that are connected to their environments in which they are able to make decisions and respond to them without an obligate digital intermediary. These architectures therefore possess some of the properties exhibited by living systems but are not truly ‘alive’ and can be regarded as a form of unconventional computing, which is the science & technology of materials with intrinsic properties that are suitable for solving particular kinds of problems.

Unconventional computing systems differ from digital ones in that they possess mass and therefore operate within a finite timeframe, require physical inputs to generate material outputs. These systems can be robust, but also can behave unpredictably and therefore have the capacity to solve unpredictable situations (Armstrong, 2001).

We will explore the possible synergies between the broad disciplines of synthetic biology and architecture through the lens of unconventional computing. A new vision of architecture is emerging that requires the reconsideration of materials in the built environment. How are materials manufactured, how are they maintained, and what properties (perhaps not yet realized) are desired? Of particular interest is the integration