Abstract:
The ancient metaphor of “machine as organism and organism as machine” has the potential to become realised in this technologically-advanced age. The realm of the born nature and the realm of the humanly constructed are becoming one.1 The complexity of computers human-made systems made it possible to prove that one could abstract the laws of life and apply them elsewhere.2 So far, the mechanical system has inherited certain living traits off nature: self-replication, self-governance, mild evolution, and limited self-repair. There are reasons to believe that these traits could be applied to the design discipline, and further living qualities can be synthesized. This thesis blurs the boundary between the “made” and the “living”. It participates as an agent in the existing ecology, with the ultimate goal of resisting equilibrium threatened by the domination of one single species. The project deliberately resists drawing a clear line between the building and the environment. It blends with living and non-living matters on site. The architecture becomes a self-sustaining system to actively take part in the Gaia system.