Master Class by Marcos Cruz | TOOLBOX Cycle

TOWARDS AN ARCHITECTURE OF THE BIOCENE

Embracing a transdisciplinary approach, that crosses the fields of architecture, biology, ecology, environmental biotechnology and computing, Marcos Cruz explores fundamental questions on inhabitation, materiality and biodiversity, and on the role of biodesign to shape a ‘new future where photosynthetic built habitats feed from the inexhaustible resources of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water.’ (Studio Biocene) MARCOS CRUZ is an architect and full professor of bio-integrated architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Here, he founded a research platform and two master`s programs (MArch/MSc Bio-ID) that operate on the threshold of architecture, biology and engineering. With Dr. Brenda Parker, he also run the Studio Biocene with projects under development in London, at the St Andrews Botanical Garden in Scotland, and in the north of Portugal.
Cruz has a degree from ESAP where he graduated in 1996, before moving to London where he completed a master`s degree under the supervision of Prof Peter Cook, and a doctorate which won the RIBA President’s Research Award in 2008. Cruz has a 25-year academic career as both teacher and researcher, carried out at the University of Westminster (2006-10); the University of California Los Angeles (2010); the Institut d`Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya, IAAC (2014 – present), and at University College London/UCL (1999 – present) where he was director between 2010-14, having focused on experimental architecture with bioreceptive materials; poikilohydric design; an impure aesthetic; and neoplasmic architecture.
Cruz has published several books and numerous articles, most notably AD – Neoplasmatic Design, Wiley (2008) and The Inhabitable Flesh of Architecture, Routledge (2013), and is currently writing a new book Designs for the Biocene. The work of the duo marcosandmarjan (2002-14), of which he was a founder, was responsible for the project of the Lisbon book fair (2005), a folie for the London Olympic games (Algaezebo, 2012), and a bioreceptive mural that was integrated into the permanent collection of the French architecture foundation / FRAC (Algae-Cellunoi, 2013).

For more information see www.studiobiocene.com and https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/people/prof-marcos-cruz

Organization:

CEAA | Commonplace Research Line / Cluster ARCHMEDIUM
MIA-Mestrado Integrado em Arquitectura