Arakawa+Gins produce buildings (emphasizing interiors) that force inhabitants to negotiate inconvenient, un-ergonomic form.
Through this negotiation, they claim, the immune system is strengthened. In our traditional homes, designed for comfort, we become lazy, we stop fighting, and this let's our bodies fall into decay. By emulating the 'natural' environment that formed us, A+G reconnect us with the interactive forces that make us function and make us whole.
However, their architecture is a far cry from their intention. While they model the "uncomfortableness" of nature, they leave behind the interaction, the negotiation between agents, not just with terrain, the dynamics, the élan vital.
With PLSS, why don't we try to bring true wildness into the lab. Let's bring the interactive dynamics of the natural world into our sterile, 'convenient' working space. Toby and I propose that in addition to growing plants in boxes, let's grow them right out of soil on the concrete.
Let's grow plants on every desk, let them mingle with us and our equipment.
Let's aim for an explosion of life in the lab.
Let's treat water lines just like we treat microphone cables:
want to create some life? Just run a cable from the cistern.