A polymer scaffold is installed to grow nails in a hair and nail salon at the Zoo .The polymer scaffold was developed by Advanced Tissue Sci- ences and the University of Wash- ington for growing human organs such as a liver or heart.The polymer biodegrades over time, leaving the organ intact.
This is not a building material; it is all building materials. It is all matter. As Christine Peterson, President of the Foresight Institute, stated at a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science meeting in April 2003:
Humanity’s drive to improve our control of the physical world is intrinsic to our species and has been in progress for millennia. A vast international economic and military momentum pushes us toward the ultimate goal of nano- technology: complete control of the physical structure of matter, all the way down to the atomic level.
If the Committee is considering this technology with respect to acci- dents, economic disruption, access, and terrorism, what might it become in the hands of architects?
Peter Yeadon is an architect who is registered in New York and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. His works can be viewed at www.yeadon.net
The use of the polymer scaf- fold is unique to certain con- ditions. In the nail and hair salon, above, it is used to dec- oratively cultivate and harvest growing parts of the human body. Here, it is used as clad- ding to support a snake-like skin that exfoliates and con- tinually renews the facade.
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O n S ite review
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I ssue 10 2003
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