What is Epigenetics? And what's it got to do with architecture?

WHAT IS EPIGENETICS? (and what’s it got to do with architecture?)

WHAT IS EPIGENETICS? (and what’s it got to do with architecture?)

Stuart Franks

At the heart of this project is a desire to move beyond the knowledge that the quality of our environment affects our psychological well-being towards an understanding of how it can alter our biology.

The purpose of this guide is to explain how architecture led by science can create spaces capable of affecting us in this way.

All content, illustrations & graphic design by Stuart Franks / All Rights Reserved Š 2013

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Epigenetics is an emerging field of science that describes the study of heritable changes in gene expression caused by the environment.

In essence, your body’s response to a certain situation or environment can have a lasting memory on your genes.

Epigenetic change represents a biological response to an environmental stressor.

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Human Body

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Single Cell The smallest unit of life. Our bodies are made up of approximately 100 trillion of them.

Genes A molecular unit of ‘heredity’. A series of ‘bases’ within the double helix structure of DNA make up a gene

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Chromosome Found inside the cell nucleus, they contain an organised structure of DNA and protein.

DNA Contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of our bodies. It carries all our heritable information.

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Conventional biology follows that our genetic sequence is set in stone at the moment of our conception. At that instant, we each receive a set of chromosomes from our mother and father. Within these chromosome are the genes, the basic unit of inheritance.

Scientists assumed that our genes were locked away in every cell of the body, protected and untouched by the way you lived. What you did in your life might affect you, but your genes remained untainted, unchanged for future generations.

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However, epigenetics shows our genetic sequence to be more of a recipe than a blueprint, with genes ‘silenced’ in response to certain triggers we encounter, resulting in the different personalities and dispositions we exhibit.

The attachment of a simple chemical dictates whether the gene is switched ‘on’ or ‘off’, and this is called epigenetics.

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Active gene

Inactive gene

Active gene

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The chemical processes that control these changes to our epigenome are closely linked to hormone fluctuations within the body.

Epigenetics links genetics with the environment and endocrine function. The diagram indicates how the environment affects our biology.

Influence of internal environment

Influence of external environment

Interaction

Phenotype A persons physical & behavioural characteristics

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HO RM ON ES

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G E N E TI C S

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Hormone levels vary in response to internal and external environmental changes or ‘triggers’.

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Smoking Drug taking Air pollution / toxins

ENVIRONMENTAL TRIGGERS

Weather extremes Aging

dispose us to disease

War

Global

Genocide Terrorism Chronic stress Crime

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRIGGERS

Discrimination stressors that lead to social/mental health problems

Death of a loved one Childhood neglect

Local

Overeating / excess sugar / fat Famine Pesticides / chemicals in food Drugs / pharmaceuticals

NUTRITIONAL TRIGGERS

Water pollution dispose us to disease

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However, we can use atmospheric spaces as psychological devices to ‘trigger’ or evoke specific feelings and thereby influence hormone production within the body.

At its most fundamental level, the science of hormone release within the body has to do with our emotional response to the stimuli around us - through sight, sound, touch or smell. Extended exposure to physical inputs can result in epigenetic change.

Stuart Franks

Oxytocin

Vasopressin

Melatonin

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Physical Input

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Neuroendocrine Signal & Epigenetic Change 5

Sensory / Neuro Stimulus Processing

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Retina Circadian Photoreceptor

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Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

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Paraventricular Nucleus (PVN)

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Pinealis Gland

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Superior Cervical Ganglion (SCG)

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Combined with the knowledge that the hormone system is at its most plastic phase in utero, the project asks; to what extent would expectant parents alter their environment to engineer the perfect child?

To what extent can we control the characteristics of our children before they are even born?

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What if the house you lived in made you fat? What if it made your eyes greener, your bones stronger, or increased your IQ? The design of environments capable of inducing epigenetic change is based on a number of ‘desirable traits’ one might like their child to exhibit.

Contributory hormones are deduced and architectural / physiological devices (shown right) are choreographed across the design scheme to produce desired outcomes.

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Control of natural light

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Air composition

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Manipulation of sound

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Manipulation of airflow

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Proximity to neighbours

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Humidity

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Temperature

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Floor-to-ceiling height

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Control of artificial light

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The project questions how the principles of epigenetics and the built environment may be exploited in the near future by setting up a scenario involving the players that may have a vested interest in the development of such ideas.

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Users / demographic

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The project proposes the redevelopment of Robin Hood Gardens – a housing development in London designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in 1970 – as a residential maternity clinic.

The site is relevant because it contains many incidental triggers associated with epigenetic change, and because of the strong social aspirations on which it was founded.

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This scenario makes the proposal both a political vanity project and scientific experiment. On one hand, the future Mayor of Tower Hamlets is commissioning a project that both aspires to improve the health the borough’s future families1 and develops undesirable land around Robin Hood Gardens2.

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An important consideration given the levels of deprivation that currently exist in the Tower Hamlets.

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The contaminated site is landlocked by roads that push pollution and noise levels at parts of the site higher than the recommended levels.

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On the other hand, while the developer may appear to be helping out, they are presented with an opportunity to experiment with the fabric of space and observe what effect it has on its residents.

GSK signed a multi-million pound deal in 2011 with a company pioneering epigenetic treatments, and are keen to invest in this developing scientific field.

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While intended as a critique of the way in which wider political and philanthropic goals tend to be subverted by the private interests of stakeholders, there is also a very real proposition at stake; one that responds to the dichotomies of human behaviour and the fact that modern science shows us to be more of a product of our surroundings than we ever realised.

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Notes

Stuart Franks