Bio Scaffolds

Abstract

Abstract‘Bio Scaffolds’ explores a series of design tectonics that emerge from a co-creation between human, machine and natural intelligences. This research establishes an integral connection between form and materiality by enabling biological materials to become a co-creator within the design and fabrication process. In this research paper, we explore a hybrid between architectural aesthetics and biological agency by choreographing natural growth through form. ‘Bio Scaffolds’ explores a series of 3D printed biodegradable scaffolds that orchestrate both Mycelia growth and degradation through form. A robotic arm is introduced into the system that can respond to the organism’s natural behavior by injecting additional Mycelium culture into a series of sacrificial frameworks. Equipped with computer vision systems, feedback controls, scanning processes and a multi-functional end-effector, the machine tends to nature by reacting to its patterns of growth, moisture, and color variation. Using this cybernetic intelligence, developed between human, machine, and Mycelium, our intention is to generate unexpected structural and morphological forms that are represented via a series of 3D printed Mycelium enclosures. ‘Bio Scaffolds’ explores an interplay between biological and computational complexity through non anthropocentric micro habitats.