There is increasing evidence that interactions between microbes and their hosts not only play a role in determining health and disease but also in emotions, thought, and behavior. Built environments greatly influence microbiome exposures because of their built-in highly specific microbiomes coproduced with myriad metaorganisms including humans, pets, plants, rodents, and insects. Seemingly static built structures host complex ecologies of microorganisms that are only starting to be mapped. These microbial ecologie…

I discuss the spatial politics of the

Architecture and Philosophy are so deeply entangled with each other that the “and” between them at once splits and rejoins a single common fabric. This enigmatic joint, and the mutual jealousies, clumsiness, and blindness it puts in motion, has a very long history. The interdependency it shapes made possible the emergence of both discourses in Ancient Greece. Architecture appeared as an exemplary theoretical art, yet already subordinated to the discourse of Philosophy that is covertly dependent on it. This essay e…

The human is an unstable idea; simultaneously an all-powerful creature – capable of transforming the whole ecology of the planet – yet extremely fragile, a murky ghost. Contemporary research into our microbiome portrays the human itself as a mobile ecology constructed by the endless flux of interactions between thousands of different species of bacteria – some of which are millions of years old and others joined us just a few months ago. This challenges conventional understandings of architecture. What does it mea…

The mirror of design: spiderwebs, sediments radiation, extinction self-surveillance -- The plastic human: plasticity, strange artifacts interface -- Blows of design: technofossils, prehistory genetic continuum hands, ornament sexual selection -- The invention of the human: tools, brain, curiosity -- The ornamental species: domestication, beads, networks, thinking strings, useless things -- New from nowhere: mechanical life, good design, morality, failure toys, functionalsim -- Good design is an anesthetic: smoothn…