Building with Algae and Shellfish: Embracing Impermanence with Biomaterial Interiors

Fabrication using experimental biomaterials made from algal, fungal, and animal derivatives has proliferated exponentially over the past few years amongst product designers, industrial designers, and fashion designers. While some of these materials—for example, mycelium— have generated excitement in the architectural community, they often fall short when held to the standard of replacing structure or cladding as we currently consider them; most of these materials will never be stand-ins for steel or concrete. Novel biologically based materials are often not entirely waterproof—in fact their biodegradability is part of their appeal—and architects may have difficulty overcoming the idea that, to be good for building, a material should have a high degree of permanence. A true biomaterial revolution would likely entail rethinking our assumptions about how buildings are made altogether—but even under current conditions, many commercial interiors are expected to last only three years or even less, and many materials used in them are neither waterproof nor biodegradable. Furthermore, in the context of adaptive reuse, where primary structure and skin often already exist, architects may find more immediate uses for semi-permanent materials than in new construction. This paper describes (1) a broad framework for developing recipes for biomaterials for interior design and adaptive reuse and (2) a project developed using this framework, in which bioplastic window treatments were installed on the façade of Mies van der Rohe’s Crown Hall (1956) at the Illinois Institute of Technology to adapt the historic building’s transparency, mitigate glare, and reduce fatal bird collisions.