Philip Beesley: Pluripotent Architecture

Philip Beesley, Professor, School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, Toronto; and Director, Living Architecture Systems Group, Toronto. The February 4, 2016 DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER) topic was on Ideation, Translation, and Realization (NAS, Washington DC). Can architecture integrate living functions? The Living Architecture Systems Group (LASG) combines the research and creation of scientists, engineers, architects and artists working together to create large-scale prototypes of immersive architectural spaces with qualities that come strikingly close to those of living systems-- environments that can move, respond, and learn; environments that renew themselves with chemical exchanges and that are adaptive and empathic toward their inhabitants. What are fundamental qualities that living architecture might offer? Answers to these research questions could offer practical methods for working with our increasingly complex and fragile built environment. DASER is a monthl