Towards a transformational eco-metabolistic bio-based design framework in architecture

Abstract This paper discusses the foundations of a bio-based material paradigm for architecture. It argues that moving from a current reliance on the non-renewable materials of the geosphere, to the renewable and fundamentally cyclical materials of the biosphere can establish alternate foundations for thinking alternative sustainable building practices. By positioning architecture and the built environment as a particular case for bio-based materials, where the longer life spans of buildings support better carbon storage, this paper identifies the bottlenecks that limit their adaptation into the way architecture is thought, designed and built. If architectural ideation and design is traditionally understood through the durable and the permanent, our aim here is to challenge this foundation and bring forth the fundamental differences that bio-based materials engender. With focus on the embedded lifespans of living materials, the fundamental circularity and degradability of biomass and resulting transformative life cycles of the artefacts that they embody, this paper asks how a new representational framework for bio-based material paradigm can be conceptualised, instrumentalised and in turn materialised. The paper supports this positioning through a presentation of a series of methodological probes. The probes outline strategies for new methodologies by which we can capture, predict and steer the transformations of living materials and functionalise them as part of an architectural performance.