A BioZome is a NanoFoam based RhiZome infrastructure complex evolved to host organic life using a variety of habitat structures that integrate with, or are ‘grown’ from, this infrastructure. By the Solarian age BioZomes would be the predominate form of organic human habitat on most of the natural bodies of the solar system, with many being quite vast. Earth’s may be one of the largest and most elaborate and unique among those in the solar system by virtue of its use of predominately open air surface buildings in the form of arcologies in an endless variety of forms and sizes, including many floating marine arcologies evolved from the settlements of the Aquarius phase and possibly even permanent aerial structures supported by vacuum lift. There may even be discrete houses still on Earth, though suburban environments may be largely obsolete and any isolated individual homes may be well merged into the landscape to minimize their aesthetic and environmental impact.
Though mostly very tightly integrated into the RhiZome complex, the dwellings of Earth’s BioZome may seem quite discrete because their interfaces to the infrastructure would be mostly underground and the natural habitat much restored around them. In many cases they would seem little different from the contemporary architecture of today, save for their community-focused community-generated design, their great freedom of spontaneous structural adaptation, the lack of surface roads and highways, and the restored wilderness. However, many important functions would be built into their structures and integrated into their surfaces; photovoltaics, atmospheric carbon absorbers, heating, cooling, and lighting, controls and displays. Every surface may feature a potential touch display. Typical arcologies would employ architectures that are variations on the traditional Soleri arcology strategy of a three-zone structure; the natural zone of the open exterior wilderness, the enclosed but unobstructed and centralized public space of the community, and the private personal space volumetrically organized/distributed in between the other two. This would tend to produce radially organized structures or clusters of smaller radially formed structures. Many would seek to merge their structural forms into the existing landscape, placing some features underground and appearing rather like terraced hills and small mountains or being merged with existing mountains and large cliffs. Others may employ rather abstract forms or fanciful simulations of the architecture of history, fantasy, or cultures of antiquity. With the expanded structural performance of diamondoid materials coupled to the grown-in-place nature of NanoForam, some forms may be quite tall, feature seemingly implausible cantilevered features, and remarkably delicate-looking compared to contemporary architecture.
At the human scale, their density and environments would be urban, but not like the dysfunctonal cities of the present. Devoid of cars, office buildings, and most shops and stores in the conventional sense, in many ways they would seem like the more traditional villages and towns of the pre-industrial past -like the medieval hill towns of Europe, the ‘circus’ communities of 18th century Bath Britain, the old canal streets of Amsterdam, the towns of Edo-era Japan, traditional walled villages or Hakka houses of southern China. During the Post-Industrial era -during the Aquarius/Asgard phases of TMP- many, of not most, terrestrial communities would seek novel ways of integrating commerce, industry, and farming back amidst the residential environment in order to facilitate industrial independence on the community level. But by the Solarian age, with NanoFoam supplanting even most Post-Industrial forms of on-demand manufacturing, these communities would again shift their environments to a focus on residence, recreation, entertainment, and common aesthetic themes. Though seemingly much simpler, quieter, and more serene in general aspect to contemporary cities, for those with personal digital interfaces these environments may be quite busy with information in places, augmented reality displays hidden from normal view coming alive with luminous graphics, virtual art, and signage. Should this become a commonly used technology, many visible controls and signs may be replaced by augmented reality alternatives only visible when someone applies their attention. Some doors might have no physical handles or locks or even visible seams and would only be openable through their AR controls. Likewise, some machines may have no visible controls except in AR.
Elsewhere in the solar system more enclosed BioZomes may be the norm, using a variety of surface and subterranean enclosure structures of vast size hosting smaller arcology-like structures set in garden habitats with naturalistic -or sometimes more fanciful- landscapes. The basic configuration for the habitats of the Avalon phase would be that of domed garden/park atriums surrounded by dwellings formed into articulated terraces -sort of a Modernist take on the previously mentioned ‘circus’ villages of Bath. These may vary in size from personal dwellings to cities and be either entirely underground or based on surface domes using the same light/image transmitting hull technology employed by EvoHabs. However, by the Solarian age the NanoFoam based equivalents of these structures could be quite large in area -domes many kilometers in span thanks to the performance of NanoFoam and a reduced gravity- and very divergent in design. Instead of simple domes, complex asymmetric organic shell forms with highly varied and tall perimeter-edge structures may be employed, reminiscent of weather-worn stones and rock formation, stromatilites, or plants like the ‘living stone’ succulants known as Lithops. Where clusters of domes are used to cover vast areas, arcologies could be formed where three or more converge on a support column. If a regular geometry is used for covering large amounts of surface area, these arcologies would be regularly spaced, but probably very divergent in architectural design.
As noted in the earlier Avalon articles, the culture of the inhabitants of surface settlements may come to revolve around the cultivation and design of their garden biomes and with the advent of NanoFoam this garden life could be very intimately integrated to the systems of the overall habitat. Thus these BioZome dwellers may wholly embrace a more organic design aesthetic for their habitat and encourage it to seem more organismic and zoomorphic in character. Their architecture may seem very similar to the fanciful organic design of contemporary designers like Roger and Martyn Dean, Eugene Tsui, or Peter Vetsch. Certainly, many robots of the Solarian era will be quite animal and plant like in aspect and would blend with flora and fauna imported and adapted from Earth life.
Parent Topic[]
Peer Topics[]
- Life In Solaria
- EcoSphere
- RhiZome
- Solar Snowflake - Sunflower - Sundisc - Solar Ribbon
- Geopolis
- Dyson Sphere
- Solarian Spacecraft
- Solaria Supporting Technologies
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