Built Ecologies: Metabolistic Resource Thinking Through Biogenic Materials

Biogenic materials are fundamentally cyclical. Whether associated with heritage-driven approaches or high-tech innovations, they are formed by cycles of growth, deployment, and degradation. As instantiations of biomass, they flow through a global steady-state system in distinct temporal cycles ranging from those of seconds and minutes in the lives of cells and bacteria, to those of centuries and millennia in the lifespans of forests and ecosystems. It is this inherent circularity that brings forth our perception of biogenic materials as renewable.