Philip Beesley, the creative mind of Radiant Soil, discusses the conceptual and scientific basis for the installation he describes as a “near-living architecture.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNZwrC_IuX0#t=391
Designed by Canadian-based architect and artist Philip Beesly, Radiant Soil is an art installation designed to test biomemetic techniques and biological processes which could lead to an architecture that is nearly living. In taking a hylozoic approach, which Beesly describes as “life coming out of material”, components such as metal, polymer and glass are translated biomemetically to track human motion and respond to our movements. In a broad sense, the installation aims to mimic a functioning biological system which can interact with people. In a micro sense, the project defines several suspended filter layers which contain a “near-living carbon capture metabolism.” Equipped with a shape-memory system, the individual components have the capability to react to movement, causing an interdependent chain reaction of results based on the input of human motion as stimuli. The basic premise here is that this experiment could become a possible future for organic architecture; one in which building systems can respond to certain factors such as environmental control or human ergonomics. It should be seen not as a method of building production, but rather as a medium of production. It could be an architectural agent through which spatial factors of comfort, performability and control could be implemented within the production of architecture, rather than producing the architecture itself by its own processes.
— Andrew Scalisi
RESEARCH RESOURCES
Grdadolnik, Helena. “It’s Alive!” Canadian Interiors 47, no. 8 (December 2010): 20–22.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/833844756?accountid=14214
This short article gives insights into Beesley’s vision for what architecture could be through a hylozoic approach: one that responds to light, heat and perhaps even human mood. One important aspect to note is that the installation is not entirely predictable, in that it does not always respond accordingly to human motion in a timely fashion. This, however, reinforces the idea of it’s being “alive” rather than being simply programmed.
“Philip Beesley Architect Inc.” Accessed August 29, 2013.
http://www.philipbeesleyarchitect.com/sculptures/1218_Radiant-Soil_Paris/index.php
This project descriptor emphasizes Beesley’s idea of the hyolozoic. He views even the most inanimate of objects to contain such richness of life that they could pervade the process of architecture in extremely progressive and interactive ways.
“This Bizarre Installation Mimics a Real Biological Ecosystem.” Accessed August 29, 2013.
This blog post can be described as “Beesley’s hyolozoism for dummies.” It is a playful and graspable explanation of the architect’s science project: “the installation mimics a living, breathing biological system that actually interacts with people…make what you will of the project’s deeper meaning, but to us, it’s totally amazing.”
