SKIN MACHINE

Studio Theodore Spyropoulos

Tutors Apostolos Despotidis, Octavian Mihai Gheorghiu, Hanjun Kim

Team Arya Gupta, Hemant Jindal, Muna Abbas, Zeinab Muneam

The aspect of the elemental challenges our notion of architecture, intervening with the fundamental, and creating a system that co-exists with the environment. Skin Machine is looking at these aspects as a form of technology, while looking into bacterial cellulose as a material that is produced by a strain of bacteria to explore this type of material contingency.  

 Artificial human systems are threatening life on earth for hundreds of years. While artificial systems created by humans may be toxic, biological systems have been sustaining themselves for millions of years, without harming the environment. Skin Machine explores collaboration with different species and uses biological responsive systems to sustain life.  

 Skin Machine researches bacteria as an elemental living being. Being the origin of evolution as the oldest living organism on Earth, these microorganisms play an important role in sustaining life and the ecosystems on the planet even today. Within bacteria more specifically, we research biofilm, called Bacterial Cellulose, which is produced by Acetobacteraceae, a strain of bacteria.  

 The project’s research starts with developing an understanding of the material properties and its limitations. Bacterial Cellulose forms as a sheet on the surface of its growth medium through its ability to self-heal/bind either with itself or with different materials and form various composites that vary in elasticity, stiffness, and strength. Moreover, outside its growth medium, Bacterial Cellulose has great tensile and shrinkage properties, depending on its treatment while drying. This allows us to assign this material a certain level of agency to formalise itself three dimensionally with the help of scaffolding systems. 

Skin Machine researches the possibilities of expanding and utilising Bacterial Cellulose and its properties within Architecture and form-finding processes. The skins of Bacterial Cellulose will be expanded using different scaffolding systems and surface patterning techniques that emerge from the agency of the material.