Bio/Matter/Techno/Synthetics: Design Futures for the More Than Human

The twenty-three papers and five editorials collected in this volume speak to subjects of bio-design, speculative biology, green walls and pavers, design by decay, soilless soil, sentient materials, photogrammetrees, robotics, nanotechnology, thermal architecture and alliesthesia, digital weaving, chemical droplets, and even Frankenstein. More broadly, ideas and questions that animate the two dozen articles collected in B/M/T/S are grounded in the production and representation of emergent ecologies, non-human agency, machine learning, and responsive computation.

Bio/Matter/Techno/Synthetics: Design Futures for the More Than Human (B/M/T/S) captures anddisseminates inspiring voices in contemporary design practicing in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, art, ecology, environmental design, material studies, emerging technologies, media, artificial intelligence, and critical theory. B/M/T/S articulates future ready visions for a field that is increasingly called upon to participate in ever more complex aesthetic, ethical, environmental and socio-political contexts. B/M/T/S does this by redefining the very origins, principles, and values of design. Despite the propensity of contemporary discourse to favor the search for a hegemonic theory, this collaborative project convenes the work of twenty- eight women, all of whom interrogate the origins, methods, and tactics of their respective disciplines. 

Collectively, B/M/T/S challenges the common place nature of ideas founded in parametricism, object- oriented ontology, parafictional realism, post-digital representations, and corporate functionalism. In exchange, it seeks the confluence of critical, aesthetic, and ethical thought in future speculations on the biological, the material, the technological, and their synthesis. It does this at scales that operate across multiple disciplines and territories. The twenty-three papers and five editorials collected in this volume speak to subjects of bio-design, speculative biology, green walls and pavers, design by decay, soilless soil, sentient materials, photogrammetrees, robotics, nanotechnology, thermal architecture and alliesthesia, digital weaving, chemical droplets, and even Frankenstein.More broadly, ideas and questions that animate the two dozen articles collected in B/M/T/S are grounded in the production and representation of emergent ecologies, non-human agency, machine learning, and responsive computation. 

The book’s interdisciplinary framework guides the much-needed synthesis of design with biology, material studies, and emerging digital technologies; design being the interdisciplinary lens through which their interdependence and independence is channeled and challenged. A range of speculative theories, physical projects, material and digital technologies, as well as social critiques are offered that explore our relationship to design as a form of synthesis. Individually and collaboratively, the essays in B/M/T/S question well-established disciplinary methods in favor of new ways for actualizing previously marginalized ideas, values, and practices. Committed to an ethics of synthesis, B/M/T/S explores the limits and potential of designing with multiplicity, metamorphosis, and hybridization. The book’s authors demonstrate a variety of reconciliatory practices for cross-pollinating ideas, materials, and technologies in their drive to design a future world that is always more than human, materially constituted, artificially charged, and synthetically embedded. 

Contributions by: Sonja Du¨mpelmann, Aroussiak Gabrielian, Gundula Proksch, Pinar Yoldas, Lucinda Sanders, Ayasha Guerin, Laia Mogas Soldevilla, Andrea Ling, Mae-Ling Lokko, Rebecca Popowsky, Julia Lohmann, Martina Decker, Behnaz Farahi, Stefana Parascho, Dorit Aviv, Viola Ago, Jacqueline Wu, Sophie Hochha¨usl, Clarissa Tossin, Jenny Sabin, Rachel Armstrong, Patricia Olynyk, Kathy Velikov

Dr. Franca Trubiano is Associate Professor at the Weitzman School of Design and a Registered Architect with l'Ordre des Architectes du Québec. Her research is funded at present by the Mellon Humanities Urbanism and Design (H+U+D) Initiative, and the Perry World House and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at UPENN. Her commitment to advancing critical studies in the field of gender studies and design is most notable in the publication of her co-edited book Women [Re]Build; Stories, Polemics, Futures (ORO, a+r Editions, 2019). Dr. Trubiano is a board member of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Women in Architecture Affiliate Group. Her first edited book Design and Construction of High-Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice (Routledge Press 2012), was translated into Korean and awarded the 2015 Sejong Outstanding Scholarly Book Awards, from the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency. Her manuscript for Routledge, Building Theories, Architecture as the Art of Building (2021) has been submitted for printing. Franca was past president of the Building Technology Educators Society (BTES), as well as a founding member of the Editorial Board of the journal TAD (Technology, Architecture and Design, 2015-2016). Between 2014-2016 she was a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architectural Education.

Susan Kolber explores ethical, aesthetic, and environmental practices that reposition and reimagine humans and their interactions with other beings in the built environment. As a leader of various initiatives at AIA's Equity by Design group and Penn's Women in Design organization, advocacy work has been an important aspect of her professional and academic practices. She has focused on increasing equity in the professions of architecture and landscape architecture through projects that have focused on data collection, storytelling, and mentorship. Her professional background is in residential architecture and public landscapes where she has worked on projects of different scales combining her interests in multispecies relationshipsandenvironmentalresearch, equityadvocacy, and passion for design. Susan received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania studying Architecture, Urban Studies, and East Asian Studies.

Marta Llor is an architectural designer from Barcelona, based in New York. She graduated with a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a certificate in Urban Resilience. She holds a BFA in Architectural Design from Parsons School of Design, where she received the School of Constructed Environments Honors. She is currently a designer at Snarkitecture. Throughout her academic career, Marta has held leadership roles in various organizations, including Penn Women in Design (PWID) where she was the Professional Development Chair for three years. In her role, Marta developed a robust program of Firm Visits and a wide network of professional connections that have helped students connect with practicing designers. Marta led teams for the organization of two conferences at Penn, and collaborated with other student organizations on campus. Marta has a passion for designing human-centered urban environments and resilient cities. She believes architecture is the truest reflection of our values as a society, the mirage of what we strive to become. Her designs stem from a relentless curiosity about geometric explorations and narratives about space, time and agency.

Amber Farrow is a third-year M.Arch candidate at The Weitzman School of Design. In addition to founding the club Dinner Discourse she currently holds the chair position of Professional Development for Penn Women in Design. She previously studied at Newcastle University, where she received her Bachelor of Architecture degree. There her pursuit in the intersection between science and design started from work she did in the Experimental Architecture studio, led by Dr Martyn Dade-Roberston. Since then she has continued researching interdisciplinary practices and is currently studying the application of soft robotics in architecture for her graduate thesis, Becoming Robotic: Becoming Nature. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Van Alen Traveling Fellowship which has enabled her study of Dendriform structures in Spanish architecture, an aesthetic and structural rationality, which seeks to showcase historic and contemporary practices operating at the intersection of design, nature and technology.