Biodesigning with Living Organisms in Fablabs? Towards a Research Agenda

Recently, there has been a surging interest in designing with living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, algae and plants towards sustainable agendas. Beyond creating replacements for conventional materials, scholars have increasingly paid attention to how engaging with biodesign processes, including the ongoing growing and nurturing of living cultures, could support designers to grow capabilities to facilitate new imaginaries of the way we co-design with organisms and wider ecological systems. An understudied - yet crucial - implication of this development, is that these engagements must be fostered and disseminated by infrastructures in the first place. Building upon literature and an ongoing case, this paper foregrounds Fablabs as a fertile infrastructure that could expand opportunities to design with living organisms. By mapping out six preliminary levers that could be probed to mobilise Fablab’s infrastructure, this study calls for expanding opportunities for biodesigning, and to open up a discussion for future research agendas.