String Art Generator
March 5, 2025
String Art Generator by Yiran is a grasshopper plugin which generates a string art sequence based on an input image. You can
Directed Biogenic Fabrication:
Programming Cells and Their Ecosystems to Grow Civil Infrastructure
Joshua Van Zak
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
June, 2019
This thesis by Joshua Van Zak, introduces and evaluates directed biogenic fabrication: a philosophical approach and technical framework for co-fabricating ecologically active civil infrastructure with living cells. Author proposed that imbuing buildings and urban systems with life, or at least biologic capabilities, will enable tight interconnections between fundamental species occupying different infrastructural niches, resulting in urban ecosystems that develop and evolve closed-loop resource cycles and equilibrate our atmosphere.
As a proof of concept for this generalizable approach, author covered three strategies demonstrating specific tools, techniques, and assessment methods for designing elements of a living infrastructure: (1) Programmable Surface Features and Hydrophilicity -utilizing organic chemistry, computational design, and digital fabrication to engender particular mechanical properties and responsiveness in biopolymer materials;
Communication Ecology-templating visual and conformational signals in biopolymer materials that communicate information about the environment to other organisms; and Opportunistic Chimeric Design-exploiting and co-opting the most powerful capabilities evolution has produced in order to grow infrastructural lifeforms.
The first two methods are exemplified through two architectural scale pavilions -Aguahoja I and II-while the third is shown through a series of prototypical materials synthesized by two types of bone cancer cells. This thesis makes contributions to the fields of materials science, biological engineering, civil engineering, digital fabrication, and computational design.
Credits for Aguahoja Project: The Mediated Matter group
Jorge Duro-Royo, Joshua Van Zak, Yen-Ju (Tim) Tai, Andrea Ling, Nic Hogan, Barrak Darweesh, Laia Mogas-Soldevilla, Daniel Lizardo, Christoph Bader, João Costa, Sunanda Sharma, James Weaver, Professor Neri Oxman
