A Guide to Microbial Gastronomy
May 25, 2020A New Food Economy
May 25, 2020
Tiny Energy
An Introduction to a New Design Paradigm
Humans have naively assumed that the Earth, a self-regulating assemblage of living organisms, will passively incubate our throw-away and resource swallowing technological ‘advances’.
The planet is becoming an increasingly hostile environment for humans to inhabit, and as we come to terms with this, we realise an ecological relationship with our environment is imperative for the survival of our species.
Tiny Energy: An energy too small to comprehend amongst the usual noise of anthropogenic industrial ‘feats’, yet a force so strong it governs the order of the universe.
As we become conscious of the real natural order of the planet, where no organism is more entitled than another, we experience a sense clarity which in turn enables us to see the untapped potential that is Tiny Energy. An energy too small to comprehend amongst the usual noise of anthropogenic industrial ‘feats’, yet a force so strong it governs the order of the universe. Tiny Energy is both quantitative and theoretical: it is literally the vibrant energy embodied within all matter, whether animate or inanimate, but is also the theoretical context required for the evocation of ecological designers able to pursue the tiny energy embodied within matter as a tool which guides engagement with future ecologies.
Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter provided a philosophical platform which gave matter, and more significantly so, nonhuman matter a whole new identity. It provided a context to understand that substances are able to possess the properties of living things, for example vibrancy, but not sufficiently enough to qualify as being ‘alive’.1 An example of this is the Bacillus subtilis spore. The B. subtilis bacterium, in harsh environmental conditions, is able to evade death by morphing into a metabolically dormant form, a spore. This spore has no characteristics of life, yet exhibits swelling and shrinkage of up to 12% in the presence of moisture.2 It is an inanimate object showing its inherent vibrancy. Vibrant Matter attributed power to the material world, and in doing so created the opportunity for Tiny Energy, a new approach to architecture and design which centres around the vitality of nonhuman and inanimate matter.
Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter provided a philosophical platform which gave matter, and more significantly so, nonhuman matter a whole new identity. It provided a context to understand that substances are able to possess the properties of living things, for example vibrancy, but not sufficiently enough to qualify as being ‘alive’.1 An example of this is the Bacillus subtilis spore. The B. subtilis bacterium, in harsh environmental conditions, is able to evade death by morphing into a metabolically dormant form, a spore. This spore has no characteristics of life, yet exhibits swelling and shrinkage of up to 12% in the presence of moisture.2 It is an inanimate object showing its inherent vibrancy. Vibrant Matter attributed power to the material world, and in doing so created the opportunity for Tiny Energy, a new approach to architecture and design which centres around the vitality of nonhuman and inanimate matter.
Mapping the microbial energies inside Culina's architecture
Rachel Armstrong provided a second, architecturally stimulated, perspective on matter which was another key informer of the development of Tiny Energy. In Vibrant Architecture, Armstrong applies Vibrant Matter theory to design practice to champion the emergence of built forms which exhibit the properties of living things. Through her explorations steeped in scientific methodology, she explores how biological technologies can be used as a generative tool in design practice where they literally become the structures and inform the environment. Tiny Energy takes the scientific analytical approach exhibited by Armstrong and uses it as a fundamental design principle: in order for vibrant matter to evolve as a viable design tool there must be a cohesive relationship between design and science, as we cannot design with materials we do not understand.
Tiny Energy uses the Vibrant Matter and Vibrant Architecture theories as foundations for the realisation of a new design movement which, with the inherent energy of matter at its epicentre, influences architectural form and reshapes social and political constructs. It requires interdisciplinary collaboration by using the technical understanding of molecular sciences and embodied energy to directly influence design decisions, and in doing so, allows the emergence of a truly ecological design vernacular. It approaches design challenges from the microscopic scale up by exploring and understanding the quantitative vibrancy a material possesses to then design in collaboration with this inherent vibrancy. The outcomes achieved by this approach allow the material to thrive as the design does not constrain the material’s natural vitalism but allows it to be exhibited freely. Tiny Energy provides an ecological platform for architects and designers to augment a new design paradigm that accentuates the vibrancy of matter.
1. Armstrong R. Vibrant Architecture: Matter as a Codesigner of Living Structures. De Gruyter open; 2015. 2. Chen X, Mahadevan L, Driks A, Sahin O. Bacillus spores as building blocks for stimuli-responsive materials and nanogenerators. Nature Nanotech. 2014;9(2):137-141. doi:10.1038/nnano.2013.290
Tiny Energy uses the Vibrant Matter and Vibrant Architecture theories as foundations for the realisation of a new design movement which, with the inherent energy of matter at its epicentre, influences architectural form and reshapes social and political constructs. It requires interdisciplinary collaboration by using the technical understanding of molecular sciences and embodied energy to directly influence design decisions, and in doing so, allows the emergence of a truly ecological design vernacular. It approaches design challenges from the microscopic scale up by exploring and understanding the quantitative vibrancy a material possesses to then design in collaboration with this inherent vibrancy. The outcomes achieved by this approach allow the material to thrive as the design does not constrain the material’s natural vitalism but allows it to be exhibited freely. Tiny Energy provides an ecological platform for architects and designers to augment a new design paradigm that accentuates the vibrancy of matter.
1. Armstrong R. Vibrant Architecture: Matter as a Codesigner of Living Structures. De Gruyter open; 2015. 2. Chen X, Mahadevan L, Driks A, Sahin O. Bacillus spores as building blocks for stimuli-responsive materials and nanogenerators. Nature Nanotech. 2014;9(2):137-141. doi:10.1038/nnano.2013.290
Tiny Energy uses the Vibrant Matter and Vibrant Architecture theories as foundations for the realisation of a new design movement, which influences architectural form and reshapes social and political constructs.
