Transcalar Design: An Approach to Biodesign in the Built Environment

Biodesign holds the potential for radically increasing the sustainability of the built environment and our material culture but comes with new challenges. One of these is the bridging of the vast differences of scale between microbiological processes and architecture. We propose that a transcalar design approach, which weaves together nonlinear dependencies using computational design tools and design methodologies through the biological generation of architectural components, is a way towards successful design implementations. Such design processes were explored in a laboratory-based fabrication and study of a column element. This column, named Protomycokion, serves to illustrate how design methodologies, particularly through the use of a demonstrator artefact, can serve to navigate the multiple scales, disciplines, and experiments that are necessary to engage the complexities of biodesign. Transcalar design processes embrace the adaptability, variability and inter-dependence of biological organisms and show possible gains with regard to material sustainability and increased performativity.