Lot#11_DeepGreen. Bio-design in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The book DeepGreen, Bio-design in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, investigates the new technology of nature as it shapes contemporary architecture and design.

The 364-page volume, edited by Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto and published by Routledge, is divided into two main parts. Following the delightful prologue by Sir Peter Cook, Part One, entitled PhotoSynthetica, proposes design solutions that engage the urban microbiome and seek to achieve immediate impact. 

The second part of the book, entitled Deep Green and masterfully wrapped up in the epilogue by Prof Mario Carpo, operates within a much larger spatio-temporal frame, going beyond human perception and lifespans, to envision synthetic landscapes and deep territorial planning.

At a time of catastrophic climate change the authors have come to realize that change cannot simply be stopped or reverted and more positive dynamics should be established within the living world. To this end, the book proposes to engage with design as an extended cognitive interface, a sentient being that exists in co-evolution and symbiosis with the living planet, contributing to its beauty and continued enjoyment. Perhaps inevitably, since it was written at the peak of a global pandemic, this book reveals the more intimate dimension of ecoLogicStudio's work. Projects like BioBombola, BIT.BIO.BOT., AirBubble playground and inflatable eco-machine also reflect on the role of the family and the community in a creative practice. They test how design innovation enables radical lifestyle choices, both individually and collectively.

The book invites us to think about Artificial Intelligence as a slime mould, a spider web, a microalgae colony or a mycelium network. Like these organisms, the architectures and the landscapes envisioned and built by ecoLogicStudio embody intelligence in their morphology, material behaviour and aesthetic appearance. Consequently, ecoLogicStudio proposes design innovations that do not seek to extract energy and raw resources from the planet. They grow and evolve through the re-metabolization of waste or the filtration of pollution, in what appears to be a constant regenerative process, a new kind of artificial circularity.