Second word of the day: Architectural Protocell

The second word that I think will play an essential role in the near future of architectural practice is Protocell. The definition is coined by the same Dr Rachel Armstrong of UCL Bartlett. As guest-editors of the current issue of Architectural Design point out, Protocell architecture opens up a new link between artifice and environment, between built environment and nature. This link leads to creating positive environmental changes; it "is orchestrated, rather than controlled, through the processes of cultivation".  "Protocell technology is native to the 21st century and likely to define it and striking at the core of the current dominant ideologies and tyrannical dogmas about the nature of the architectural practice" the guest-editors add.

Word of the day: Architectural Protocell

A protocell is a primordial atomic globule, connected to the environment through the languages of physics and chemistry. Uniquely, protocell technology possesses material complexity, and is capable of self-organization.
Protocells can be made of pre-existing biological materials such as protoplasm — for example, the protoplasm of the green algae Bryopsis and slime mould — or can be fabricated from scratch using organic and inorganic chemicals.
This gives rise to the possibility of Protocell Architecture, as protocell units work together to generate their output.

Source: Rachel Armstrong

See once again: Architectural Design Magazine, Protocell Architecture, Volume 81, Issue 2, March/April 2011

> Protocell engineering, Living Architecture, Responsive, New materialism, n-Non-bio-logical