How to Build a House: Fairy Tale of a Sustainability Future is a fictional project, developed in collaboration with artist/illustrator Melka Myers, that imagines a strange world of growing and metabolic buildings and components, at the intersection of synthetic biology and building construction. Published in Volume 35: Everything under Control, Archis, April 2013. Find a copy here.
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Burrowing Worms. To different worm varieties correspond different tunnel textures.
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Seed Diagram. Notations for the integration of inert and growing building components.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/919cd4a1-7ddd-4044-81e4-45d73281b5d6/2a5e8021-2049-4116-92c0-931359831bae_rw_3840.jpg?h=66141c7837d3b728d320296d5ca1dfd3)
Fruity Wall. A thermally broken, cactus-derived organism that bears edible fruit.
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Fungal Sink. A mushroom that cyclically filters and disinfects rainwater for human use.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/919cd4a1-7ddd-4044-81e4-45d73281b5d6/0f6b0a38-f157-4250-858c-cf55778b8e54_rw_3840.jpg?h=ca72a566e16c0c6daf72bcd6f2fc954f)
Structural Leaves. Giant sticky plants that structurally bond to each other by contact.
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Thermal Warmer. Organism that harvests energy from the sun and its own metabolism.