Prof. Oliver Medvedik, Cooper Union

Prof. Oliver Medvedik from The Cooper Union Frontpage: 
"Learn How to Sequence DNA in Less Than a Day" 

Though less well known than the four degree-granting engineering disciplines -- chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical -- bioengineering has a place at The Albert Nerken School of Engineering. The practice of applying engineering principles to the life sciences happens chiefly through the Maurice Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering and through the Sandholm Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology and Bioengineering, a two-year position currently held by Prof. Oliver Medvedik. A native of New York City, he co-founded Genspace, a non-profit biotechnology laboratory for classroom and public use. Now into his second semester, Prof. Medvedik has begun rounding up students to attend iGEM, an annual, national synthetic biology competition. We sat down with him for a chat about iGEM, Genspace, his ambitions during his time at Cooper and why the thought of bioengineered terrorism doesn't worry him...too much."

Terreform ONE Official Selection of the Venice Biennale

We are happy to announce that Terreform ONE’s work is part of the official selection of the 14^th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale directed by Rem Koolhaas from June 7th to November 23rd, 2014. 

The Bio City Map, created by the nonprofit organization Terreform ONE, is a forecast of the world population distribution in the 25 densest cities on Earth. The map displays population density as a parametric graph on the front. The map back focuses on each of these cities, designed and grown inside petri dishes with colonies of E. Coli as a method of analog computation. This is an interdisciplinary project where architects, urban planners, biologists, sociologists, and artists were all working together to create a map of the near future of human population growth. 

The Global Art Affairs Foundation, under the direction of Rem Koolhaas, has curated the exhibitions at Palazzo Bembo and Palazzo Mora as an official part of the Venice Architecture Biennale. They have selected the Bio City Map as a key component of the exhibition. The project has already been exhibited internationally at the New Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam and the Onsite [at] OCAD U Gallery in Toronto.

Terreform ONE’s participation at the Venice Biennale is made possible by the generous support of CIEE, the world leader in international education and exchange. Terreform ONE has organized a workshop for students as a part of CIEE Global Architecture and Design Program. The students will study population growth in cities and participate in the installation of the Bio City World Map project for the opening of the Biennale. 

Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE Co-Founder and Associate Professor of Practice at NYU will lead a group of advanced researchers and students from NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study abroad. According to Terreform ONE Co-Founder and CIEE Academic Director for Global Architecture and Design Maria Aiolova, “The students will have the opportunity to learn new methods of studying urban growth and interact with world renowned architects, designers and thought leaders.” Terreform ONE Partners’ Melanie Fessel, Nurhan Gokturk and Oliver Medvedik will be also collaborating closely with the students.
VISIT: Bio City Map; Global Architecture and Design.

Lecture in Istanbul w/ Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim

sponsored by YEM Etkinlik and Geberit

New Book: Super Cells

Mitchell Joachim and Nina Tandon describe the tantalizing array of inventions already being created with nature’s elemental building block: the cell. Imagine personalized bone replacements, living condominium complexes, bacteria-made haute couture, and top sirloin grown without a farm. 
http://www.amazon.com/kindle/dp/B00ICXN3VA/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_eos_detail

Harvard Graduate School of Design Lecture w/ Mitchell Joachim

Projective Views on Urban Metabolism at GSD 

Mitchell Joachim, Socio-ecological Design

Chris Reed, Projective Processes

Ila Berman, Productive Recircuiting 

Moderator: Hashim Sarkis 

https://new-geographies.squarespace.com/events/#/projective-views-on-urban-metabolism/

IaaC Barcelona - Winter Lecture Series 2014: Maria Aiolova

Maria Aiolova delivered the first lecture in the Winter Series at the Institute of Advance Architecture in Catalonia. http://www.iaac.net/lectures?id=246

Terreform ONE - Bio City Map: Biology as Computation

In the next 100 years we can expect human population to reach 11 billion people. Is this sustainable? We used the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Map to take a view of the world and look at the 25 densest cities on the planet. Our Bio City Map displays population density as a parametric graph on the front. The backside zooms in on each of these cities designed and built and grown inside petri dishes.
We chose colonies of E. Coli as a method of analog computation. Population density was represented in two different forms of bioluminescent E. coli under UV light. Glowing red E. coli represented future projections, while green represented existing conditions in cities. We used the dilution method in biology to show the range of densities of E. coli populations in each petri dish. Stencils derived from CAD files would shape the E. coli into specific geometries that display the current conditions in cities. This is an interdisciplinary project because cartographers, urban planners, biologists, and architects, were all working to think about a map of the near future of human population.

Making the Bio City World Population Map of 11 Billion

Terreform ONE Exhibit + Talk w/ Maria Aiolova at Smart City World Congress in Barcelona

http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/home

Smart cities for 11 billion people: Mitchell Joachim at TEDxBerlin

Tour of Terreform ONE Studio at New Lab w/ Vimeo

Terreform from Mitchell Joachim on Vimeo.

POSTmatter with Terreform

Terreform ONE design studio explores global population growth in a new sculptural piece, using genetically modified bacteria - by Jonathan Openshaw, POSTmatter.
http://postmatter.com/#/currents/bio-city-map/

New Bio City Map of a Renewable Energy Power Grid for a Planet with Open Geopolitical Boarders - Free Power for All People for Life from Sun, Wind, Geothermal, Biomass, and Hydro sources.
See also: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/world-map-installation-uses-e-coli-and-jellyfish-proteins-to-illuminate-our-population-in-2100

Biological Urbanism Exhibit of Terreform ONE at OCAD Toronto

Exhibit - Biological Urbanism: An Opera of Disciplines from Architecture, Landscape, Urban Design, Biology, Engineering and Art.
Lisa Deanne Smith, Curator, Onsite [at] OCAD U is engaged in a cultural practice that moves between multiple mediums — art, curating, writing and arts administration — exploring issues of voice, experience and power. Recent curatorial projects at Onsite [at] OCAD University include No Dull Affairs: Karen Lofgren, Vanessa Maltese, Jillian McDonald; Ads for People: Selling Ethics in the Digital Age; and I Wonder: Marian Bantjes. She received an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Terreform ONE: Mitchell Joachim, Nurhan Gokturk, Melanie Fessel, Maria Aiolova, and Oliver Medvedik. see: http://archinode.com/terreform-brochure.pdf
Gallery Hours
Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.
Free and Open to the General Public

Bio City World Map - Population of 11 Billion in 2110

The Bio Map City is a forecast of the world population density in the next 100 years. It has been modeled by combining all the world cities together as one continuous growth system. The current phenomena of explosive growth - the "Mega-city" (Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Lagos) and the "Instant City" (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Zhengzhou, Ordos) merge together into a continuous urban construct. As human population expands, we see it as one single macro city spread across the continents. Other cities, mainly in the developed world, (Detroit, Leipzig, Manchester) demonstrate the opposite tendency, because they are shrinking at a significant rate. 
We argue that most nations cannot view the effects of planetary population density through the lens of just one city or region. Instead we aim to reveal the long-range effects of massive human population in areas of present and future urban intensity. 
On the reverse side of the mapping installation are focal points of biological details in specific localized city forms. They zoom in on density zones that are dispersed throughout the globe. These points use the technique of "bacteriography" (bacteria photography) to shift scale and underscore the highest zones of growth. Our method creates a real-time parametric display using Gammaproteo Bacterium Escherichia coli Strain K12 in agar medium that has been genetically modified to express color under UV light. The strains used are harmless variants of E. coli, commonly studied all across Europe and the United States. They have been utilized in schools for decades without any safety issues and are considered non-pathogenic and innocuous. 
The Bio Map City forms have been transformed with DNA that encodes fluorescent proteins found in sea anemones and jellyfish. This enables those bacteria to emit red, green, yellow and blue light under long wave UV bulbs. The fluorescent proteins are based on the discoveries of Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien, who were honored with a Nobel Prize for their work in 2008. Ultimately, the bacterial photos grow to reveal variant patterns of biological transformation in urban regions. 
Rather than using computer code to mimic growth in nature, this method is the actual iterative vehicle of growth itself. Bacteria in this constrained form and under the right conditions, behave almost identically to urban population patterns. Moreover, the resolution of these bio-based city patterns will change with more nuanced biological inputs. In many cases, they are as good as computational versions because they are the source which algorithms are derived from. In time, the mapping installation may illustrate patterns yet unobserved in typical digital models. It is this emergent and unfettered map of population we wish to make into spectacle. By using bio lab based materials, we expect to narrow the gap between idealized mathematical interpretations and observable events in nature. 

Terreform ONE; Mitchell Joachim, Nurhan Gokturk, Melanie Fessel, Maria Aiolova, Oliver Medvedik. Research Fellows; Chloe Byrne, Adrian De Silva, Daniel Dewit, Renee Fayzimatova, Alena Field, Nicholas Gervasi, Julien Gonzalez, Lucas Hamren, Patty Kaishian, Ahmad Khan, Laasyapriya Malladi, Karan Maniar, Ricardo Martin Coloma, Puja Patel, Merve Poyraz, Mina Rafiee, Mahsoo Salimi, Manjula Singh, Diego Wu Law.

TEDxBerlin Talk with Mitchell Joachim, Terreform ONE

http://www.tedxberlin.de/

Mitchell Joachim Lecture at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow

Strelka Institute in Moscow
http://www.strelka.com/mitchell-joachim/?lang=en