BioMateriOME: to understand microbe-material interactions within sustainable, living architectures

Beatriz Delgado Corrales, Romy Kaiser, Paula Nerlich, Armand Agraviador, Angela Sherry*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

BioMateriOME evolved from a prototyping process which was informed from discussions between a team of designers, architects and microbiologists, when considering constructing with biomaterials or human cohabitation with novel living materials in the built environment. The prototype has two elements i) BioMateriOME-Public (BMP), an interactive public materials library, and ii) BioMateriOME-eXperimental (BMX), a replicated materials library for rigorous microbiome experimentation. The prototype was installed into the OME, a unique experimental living house, in order to 1) gain insights into society’s perceptions of living materials, and 2) perform a comparative analysis of indoor surface microbiome development on novel biomaterials in contrast to conventional indoor surfaces, respectively. This review summarises the BioMateriOME prototype and its use as a tool in combining microbiology, design, architecture and social science. The use of microbiology and biological components in the fabrication of biomaterials is provided, together with an appreciation of the microbial communities common to conventional indoor surfaces, and how these communities may change in response to the implementation of living materials in our homes. Societal perceptions of microbiomes and biomaterials, are considered within the framework of healthy architecture. Finally, features of architectural design with microbes in mind are introduced, with the possibility of codifying microbial surveillance into design and construction benchmarks, standards and regulations towards healthier buildings and their occupants.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Applied Microbiology
EditorsGeoffrey Michael Gadd, Sima Sariaslani
Place of PublicationAmsterdam, Netherlands
PublisherAcademic Press Inc.
Pages77-126
Number of pages50
ISBN (Electronic)9780443192708
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2023

Publication series

NameAdvances in Applied Microbiology
PublisherElsevier
Volume122
ISSN (Print)0065-2164

Keywords

  • Surface microbiomes
  • built environment
  • materials library
  • biomaterials
  • healthy architectures
  • material futures
  • health & wellbeing

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