Which kind of thinking do we need to redesign our coastal communities? All the recent IPCC and UNEP reports show that we are quickly arriving at points of no return in the warming of our planet. Carbon emission-reduction strategies will not save the planet. We can no longer think in making slight improvements on the way we build and transformed our planet during the industrial revolution. We are in a deep crisis of imagination! In a series of studies at Florida International University we propose that a new generation of imagination will surface as we merge the fields of Architecture and Synthetic biology (SynBio). Since 2006, SynBio has been growing a factor of 10 per year, the fastest growing technology in human history. SynBio involves emerging techniques that allow us to design, edit, and engineer all kinds of living organisms. Today we can manufacture molecules by molecules: lab-grown meat, lab-grown leather, milk, wood, fuels, fragrances, fabrics, novel pharmaceuticals, COVID-19 vaccines, and even age-reversal techniques. In this project, we visualize a series of islands and buildings in the estuary of Biscayne Bay in Miami, which uses living matter to grow. Based on previous research on a gene circuitry that uses cyanobacteria that has the ability to precipitate calcite to solidify sand in days. We envision the growth of a series of islands over the shallow Biscayne Bay as a way to create a "living structure" for relocating populations from Miami threatened by sea-level rise. These growing territories will have increased soil pressure that will self-transform according to the levels of rising seas. The proposed system of islands works like atolls that will create defenses from currents and surges. Each project was developed from a study particular growth process and each design investigates what makes an organism develop its shape.
