Through the author's social media channels, the conceptual work "Uterine Spaces" will be presented with a short movie. "Uterine Spaces" is an architectural environment whose main component is a biomaterial obtained through the fermentation of a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). Drawing inspiration from the nurturing qualities of the female uterus, the project links architectural space to life, death and the biodegradation of the materials of which it is composed, with the aim of stimulating reflection on multispecies coexistence.
The objective is to favor the involvement in the built environment of agents usually regarded as toxic (like bacteria and molds), in order to move away from the cultural bias in which human beings are seen as members of a dominant species and, finally, move towards a non-anthropocentric model of representation of our ecological relationship with the non-human. In this framework, architectural spaces are seen as places of co-habitation and the uncanny (associated with decaying biological material) becomes a new aesthetic canon.
"Uterine Spaces" is part of Selenia Marinelli's independent research on biofabrication which focused on the DIY creation of biomaterials to reach innovative aesthetics and promote material activism through a transdisciplinary material design approach.
Selenia in fact explores how biotechnology and biomaterials, as alternatives to traditional construction materials, can play a key role to drive the change to a more sustainable and “living” architecture in the context of the Anthropocene Era.