Form from within : scaling up self-constructing biological architectures through a novel application of synthetic morphogenesis

Abstract

In this thesis, I introduce a novel biofabrication method Architectures from Staged Self-assembly of Morphogenetic Building Elements (ASSEMBLE), that brings about self-constructing biological structures at the architectural scale by merging scientists' newly developing ability to control the morphogenetic power of living matter with architects' and builders' discrete assembly method, which they have used for centuries to scale up their structures. ASSEMBLE arose from a recognition that in nature, simple building blocks, such as biological cells, self-organize into higher-order, complex structures with no descriptive blueprints at hand and no intelligent designer telling them what to do; instead, they execute a set of generative rules encoded in their DNA. By editing these rules, synthetic biologists can now program living cells to undergo synthetic morphogenesis, and thereby construct higher-order structures by design. However, so far, the biggest programmable structures we have developed in this way are merely on the order of millimeters, which is too small to be relevant in architectural practice. ASSEMBLE bridges this gap by employing these millimeter-scale structures as morphogenetic building elements that can self-assemble with one another through a set of physical assembly cues they are programmed grow on their surfaces. To identify which assembly cues needed on a group of morphogenetic building elements for them to self-assemble into a target structure, I also introduce a 3D global-to-local structural compiler. In this way, ASSEMBLE enables us to create self-constructing architectures by exploiting biological cells as an infinite supply of building material, into which desired structural