Part architecture, part biology, part engineering, Neoplasmatic Design is an emerging interdisciplinary movement that yields hybrid technologies, new materiality and a whole new potential of living, "biologized" forms. The "House of the Future," a project by Kuangyi Tao, conceives of homes made with alloy tubes and a "skin" comprised of photosynthetic algae. As an electro-responsive material, the algae would be able to adapt to daylight, thereby increasing energy efficiency in the building. The "skin" would also convert carbon dioxide into energy-providing sugar while releasing oxygen as a by-product, thereby purifying air. Any overgrowth of algae could be composted as biofuel, feeding energy back into the home or its surrounding city. Quite a few energy benefits, just from an algae skin!
In a coming neo-biological era, buildings could mutate to make better use of their environment, cars could be similarly adaptable, and any number of hybridized biological material could be developed to apply biology's adaptability.
See related:
- Living Environments: TED—Rachel Armstrong discusses the creation of synthetic living materials and how their application in Venice could keep the city from sinking.
- What is Biomimicry?