All buildings today have something in common. They're made using Victorian technologies. This involves blueprints, industrial manufacturing and construction using teams of workers. All of this effort results in an inert object. And that means that there is a one-way transfer of energy from our environment into our homes and cities. This is not sustainable. I believe that the only way that it is possible for us to construct genuinely sustainable homes and cities is by connecting them to nature, not insulating them from it.
今天世界上的建築都有些相同之處 他們都運用了維多莉亞時期所發展的技術 像是藍圖的繪製 使用工業製造出的建材 以及許多的建築工人 結果創造出來的卻是一個毫無"生氣"的物體 這是一種單向的能源轉換 把能源從大自然傳到我們的城市和家裡 這一點也不符合永續發展的觀念 我相信唯一的解決方法 是把建築與自然環境結合 建造出能永續使用的家和城市 而不是把它們區隔開來
Now, in order to do this, we need the right kind of language. Living systems are in constant conversation with the natural world, through sets of chemical reactions called metabolism. And this is the conversion of one group of substances into another, either through the production or the absorption of energy. And this is the way in which living materials make the most of their local resources in a sustainable way. So, I'm interested in the use of metabolic materials for the practice of architecture. But they don't exist. So I'm having to make them.
因此,我們需要的是一種正確的"語言" 長久以來,生態系統和自然界 不斷地透過新陳代謝 來進行對話 也就是,一種物質轉換成另一種物質 或是 物質經過能量的吸收與作用而變成另一種物質 這就是生命體如何以一個永續的方式 來運用 所需的資源 所以,我對於把能重複代謝的物質 運用到建築科技上非常有興趣 但這種物質目前並不存在,所以,我打算創造它
I'm working with architect Neil Spiller at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and we're collaborating with international scientists in order to generate these new materials from a bottom up approach. That means we're generating them from scratch. One of our collaborators is chemist Martin Hanczyc, and he's really interested in the transition from inert to living matter. Now, that's exactly the kind of process that I'm interested in, when we're thinking about sustainable materials.
我和英國巴特列特建築學院的建築師 史畢樂先生 還有其他科學家合作 從零開始 研發這種新的材料 也就是說,我們將是研發這類材料的先驅 化學家Martin Hanczyc也是我們團隊中的一員 他對於這種物質轉換的研究 非常有興趣 談到要研發永續材料 是我非常樂見的
So, Martin, he works with a system called the protocell. Now all this is -- and it's magic -- is a little fatty bag. And it's got a chemical battery in it. And it has no DNA. This little bag is able to conduct itself in a way that can only be described as living. It is able to move around its environment. It can follow chemical gradients. It can undergo complex reactions, some of which are happily architectural. So here we are. These are protocells, patterning their environment. We don't know how they do that yet. Here, this is a protocell, and it's vigorously shedding this skin. Now, this looks like a chemical kind of birth. This is a violent process.
所以,Martin採用了一種名為"原生細胞"的系統 這彷彿就像魔術一樣- 在這個圓圓胖胖的袋狀物裡,裝著一個化學電池 它並不具有DNA 這個小小的袋狀物能夠自行運作 就像是有生命一樣 它能夠自己在環境中移動 或是跟隨化學梯度移動 它也能通過複雜的化學反應 它們對於建築非常有幫助 這些原生細胞 能夠仿造他們所在的環境 我們目前還無法得知他們是如何做到的 這個原生細胞,它正在脫離他的表皮 有點像小孩出生一樣 是一個非常激烈的程序
Here, we've got a protocell to extract carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it into carbonate. And that's the shell around that globular fat. They are quite brittle. So you've only got a part of one there. So what we're trying to do is, we're trying to push these technologies towards creating bottom-up construction approaches for architecture, which contrast the current, Victorian, top-down methods which impose structure upon matter. That can't be energetically sensible.
這邊是一個能夠從大氣中把二氧化碳抽離出來的 原生細胞 之後,二氧化炭將會被轉換成碳酸鹽 而這些就是球狀物邊緣的硬殼 他們非常的脆,所以我們能夠弄到的並不多 現在我們研究的,就是對這項科技 發展出由下到上的建築技術 並且應用在建築上 這跟目前採用這種維多莉亞式由上而下 加強結構的方法並不一樣 因為這並不符合永續的概念
So, bottom-up materials actually exist today. They've been in use, in architecture, since ancient times. If you walk around the city of Oxford, where we are today, and have a look at the brickwork, which I've enjoyed doing in the last couple of days, you'll actually see that a lot of it is made of limestone. And if you look even closer, you'll see, in that limestone, there are little shells and little skeletons that are piled upon each other. And then they are fossilized over millions of years.
所以,由下到上的材料 確實存在 這種材料早在古代就已被使用在建築上過 在英國的牛津 他們牆上使用的磚 和我最近做的事不謀而合 你可以看見他們大量使用了石灰岩 再靠近一點看 你可以看見石灰岩中的殼 還有一些殘骸堆積在裡面 隨著時間,它們現在都已成了化石
Now a block of limestone, in itself, isn't particularly that interesting. It looks beautiful. But imagine what the properties of this limestone block might be if the surfaces were actually in conversation with the atmosphere. Maybe they could extract carbon dioxide. Would it give this block of limestone new properties? Well, most likely it would. It might be able to grow. It might be able to self-repair, and even respond to dramatic changes in the immediate environment.
這些石灰岩本身 並不是甚麼特別有趣的東西 雖然它看起來美極了 但想想這些石灰岩磚的特性 如果它們的表面 和空氣有接觸的話 他們或許就能吸收二氧化碳 這些沉積物能賦予石灰岩新的價值嗎? 非常有可能.它能夠生長 自我修復或是對周圍環境的 立即變化 能夠有反應
So, architects are never happy with just one block of an interesting material. They think big. Okay? So when we think about scaling up metabolic materials, we can start thinking about ecological interventions like repair of atolls, or reclamation of parts of a city that are damaged by water. So, one of these examples would of course be the historic city of Venice. Now, Venice, as you know, has a tempestuous relationship with the sea, and is built upon wooden piles. So we've devised a way by which it may be possible for the protocell technology that we're working with to sustainably reclaim Venice. And architect Christian Kerrigan has come up with a series of designs that show us how it may be possible to actually grow a limestone reef underneath the city.
但建築師對這些一塊塊的東西 當然還不滿足 他們想要的還不只是如此 提到增加能夠代謝的材料時 我們先考慮生態干預 像是修復珊瑚礁 和城市中曾經 遭受水災的地方 這些例子 就跟威尼斯一樣 和海有著密不可分的關係 而且威尼斯整個城市是建築在木頭上的 所以我們想出了一個計畫 就是使用原生細胞的科技 來修復威尼斯 而建築師Christian Kerrigan 已經有了一連串的設計 來告訴我們要如何在威尼斯底下 種植石灰岩礁
So, here is the technology we have today. This is our protocell technology, effectively making a shell, like its limestone forefathers, and depositing it in a very complex environment, against natural materials. We're looking at crystal lattices to see the bonding process in this. Now, this is the very interesting part. We don't just want limestone dumped everywhere in all the pretty canals. What we need it to do is to be creatively crafted around the wooden piles.
這就是我們現今所擁有的 原生細胞科技 有效率地生產石灰岩上的那些沉積物外殼 並把它們放置在複雜的環境中 對抗自然的素材 我們現在看的是水晶晶格的結合過程 這是一個非常有趣的部分 我們不要只是把石灰岩丟在威尼斯美麗的運河裡 我們要做的是 讓它們圍繞著水底下的木頭
So, you can see from these diagrams that the protocell is actually moving away from the light, toward the dark foundations. We've observed this in the laboratory. The protocells can actually move away from the light. They can actually also move towards the light. You have to just choose your species. So that these don't just exist as one entity, we kind of chemically engineer them. And so here the protocells are depositing their limestone very specifically, around the foundations of Venice, effectively petrifying it.
你可以從這些圖中看見原生細胞正在 遠離光源 朝著深色的底座靠近 我們在實驗室中就觀察出了這點 原生細胞是有趨光性的 但也有些不同種類的原生細胞是有向光性的 他們不只是以一種實體的狀態存在 我們利用化學工程改良他們 原生細胞沈積在石灰岩上 有目標地包覆著威尼斯的底座 使底座更堅固
Now, this isn't going to happen tomorrow. It's going to take a while. It's going to take years of tuning and monitoring this technology in order for us to become ready to test it out in a case-by-case basis on the most damaged and stressed buildings within the city of Venice. But gradually, as the buildings are repaired, we will see the accretion of a limestone reef beneath the city. An accretion itself is a huge sink of carbon dioxide. Also it will attract the local marine ecology, who will find their own ecological niches within this architecture.
但這不是一蹴可及的.我們還需要一段時間 我們可能還需要幾年的時間做觀察並且調整 接著才能 在威尼斯受損的建築上 測試 等到建築物漸漸被修復之後 我們將看到石灰岩礁和城市的底座附著在一起 這整個沈機物會是由一大塊固體狀的二氧化碳組成 而且還會使附近的海洋生態 趨於穩定
So, this is really interesting. Now we have an architecture that connects a city to the natural world in a very direct and immediate way. But perhaps the most exciting thing about it is that the driver of this technology is available everywhere. This is terrestrial chemistry. We've all got it, which means that this technology is just as appropriate for developing countries as it is for First World countries. So, in summary, I'm generating metabolic materials as a counterpoise to Victorian technologies, and building architectures from a bottom-up approach.
這非常的有趣.我們有一座城市 能夠與大自然 有最直接的關連 但最讓人感到興奮的 莫過於驅動這項科技的元素都處都可以找的到 那是現在地球上現有的,要取得它們完全不成問題 這意味著,這像科技不但適合在 開發中國家使用 也適合在已開發的國家中使用 總而言之,我正在開發這種能夠代謝的素材 來和維多莉亞式的科技取得平衡 並以一個下到上的方式應用到建築上
Secondly, these metabolic materials have some of the properties of living systems, which means they can perform in similar ways. They can expect to have a lot of forms and functions within the practice of architecture. And finally, an observer in the future marveling at a beautiful structure in the environment may find it almost impossible to tell whether this structure has been created by a natural process or an artificial one. Thank you. (Applause)
第二,這些代謝材料 存在著一些生物的特質 他們和生物有些相似處 應用到建築上 它們能夠有各種不同的型式與功能 最後,當未來的人 對這些美麗的建築讚嘆不已時 將分不出來 這個建築 是自然生成的? 還是人造的? 謝謝! 掌聲