Rachel Armstrong: Architecture that repairs itself?

http://www.ted.com Venice, Italy is sinking. To save it, Rachel Armstrong says we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials and, well, make architecture that grows itself. She proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters carbon, too.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Rachel
• Armstrong
• TEDTalks
• TED.com
• TED
• architecture
• nature
• biology
• life
• metabolic
• materials
• Venice
• Italy
• construction

[audiowiz]

It's a fancy idea, one I favor, but the presentation lacked real world test cases, and was too theoretical. Also she did not turn around.

[BartenderMix]

not too practical then

[Southernfoos]

apparently she's been playing too much minecraft

[crudhousefull]

Can you grow an architectural structure be grown from plant 'stem' cells? Can they be programmed to grown in ways we want it to? Growing leaves in the places we want and having proper plumbing? I believe you guys can do it if you work with geneticists. What kind of gene mapping's going on with plant cells? Hope there's progress there...since most contemporary problems can be solved if this works without creating more problems, which is how scientific solutions usually work

[alanminshull11]

Rachel that was marvellous. to believe this could happen is amazing, but to actually see you and others making it happen is perhaps one of the greatest scientific breakthrough's of humankind.

I have just one question though, how do you stop it from spreading once the process has began and has completed its work?

However as you say you are researching this at present and I wish you the very best.

My best regards

Alan Minshull (OAS ocean artists society member)

[insomniacgrace]

Indeed, so informative and very comprehensive.Thanks for sharing, this is just too useful for me.

[Arohaeight]

Can anyone tell me if there are any further updates on this subject.

[Aphradonis]

@1DAYSPAY How crude. Can we not comment on her physical attractiveness tastefully?

[1DAYSPAY]

Yes you are BANGABLE!!!

[annoythis]

@arquiteuthis However, nature works entirely on sunlight, sure there are minerals, salts etc that nature uses in the production of anything, but it is entirely sustainable by the life/death cycle. I don't particularly like the way this presentation was put across, but the idea could work in venice... The key to its success lies in the ability to turn on and off growth cycles, I expect that without DNA reproduction could easily be controlled, and it's merely a case of precise growth control...