Skrevet af Lan Thuy Pham, 5. september 2010

Rachel Armstrong starts out with a quote back from 1771: Venice is sinking. She adds that Venice seems to stand in defiance of nature and the city is doing a great job keeping afloat. Venice is using the latest aquarian technology: Draining techniques, canals etc. are supporting the city. However, the water is still incredible disrupting to the city, and expensive buildings have been abandoned because of the water. Marble with deep ridges in it is a common sight as well.
Together with her supervisor at University of Southern Denmark, Martin Hanczyc, she is devising a new way to rescue Venice from sinking. By using protocells that can secrete a carbonate material, the wood stilts that are holding up Venice can be petrified. The protocells could be the beginning of a genuinely complex technology which has a different way of being and interaction with the environment: It's not predictable and it doesn't have an on/off-button.
Rachel Armstrong shows some pictures of the protocells that have formed a thick layer of crystals around them on some old bricks. The crystals, a form of carbonate, can be used as building material, it protects against the assaults of the sea and repairs. She adds that the cell can be programmed to sense CO2 around it, so it will only produce carbonate when there's CO2 in the environment. One possibility is to develop a smart paint what can grow and adjust to the environment. Another possibility is to create protocells that responds to heavy metals like quicksilver and metabolize it to something harmless and potentially useful.
The technology is not strictly biology, though it shares a common language. The protocells are something that will later become a cell, but it is not able to replicate itself. The cells are can be described as the missing link between inert material and biology and they will have an actual relationship with the city. However, green technology requires a lot of infrastructure to support and it will not be easy nor fast to introduce it.
Living technology offers ways for architecture and environment to respond to immediate changes around them, just like life. The 21st century is a design paradigm where design is approached top-down. It is a completely novel idea to use the environment to build and it makes a complete difference. But in order to this to happen, people need to be empowered by appropriate tools.

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