• • uncube's editors are Sophie Lovell (Art Director, Editor-in-Chief), Florian Heilmeyer, Rob Wilson and Elvia Wilk; editorial assistance: Susie S. Lee and Leigh Theodore Vlassis; graphic design: Lena Giovanazzi; graphics assistance: Madalena Guerra. uncube is based in Berlin and is published by BauNetz, Germany's most-read online magazine covering architecture in a thoughtful way since 1996.

  In this, our most speculative issue yet, we dip into the world of biohacking and wetlabs and consider the idea of the “soft machine” in terms of biomimetic architecture and synthetic biology – humans either mimicking or reverse-engineering nature.

   

  Forget any Burroughs-esque ideas of soft machines as singular entities (that’s so twentieth century) or Man vs. Nature (so Hemingway). Tomorrow’s world will see humans merged with nature and ecosystem integration. That, say our featured experts, implies increased complexity, interdisciplinarity – and total system restructure.

   

  Get back to nature.

   

  The uncube team
  

   

  The editors

  Cover photo: Johanna Schmeer, “Bioplastic Fantastic”, 2014. (Photo: Christian Schmeer)
  

• COVER

  COVER

  Cover

  Soft Machines
• Table of contents

  Table of contents
• EDITORIAL

  EDITORIAL

  Editorial

  Soft Machines
• INTERVIEW

  INTERVIEW

  The Sincerest Form of Flattery

  Interview with biomimicry expert, Ilaria Mazzoleni

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Elytron Pavilion

  Nature built by robots

  Text: Leigh Theodore Vlassis
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Soft Speculations

  Michael Wihart's soft machines

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• FOCUS

  FOCUS

  Paola Antonelli

  Best of Bio-design

  Text: Paola Antonelli
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  The Bigger Picture

  Bio-cities of tomorrow

  Text: Marco Poletto, Claudia Pasquero
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Brave New Kitchen

  Microbial Home by Philips Design

  Text: Elvia Wilk
• SPECIAL

  SPECIAL

  Zumtobel Group Award 2014

  Part 3
• PHOTO ESSAY

  PHOTO ESSAY

  Bioplastic Fantastic

  Johanna Schmeer's interactive, edible products

  Text: Susie S. Lee
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Live Wires

  Philip Beesley's "living" environments

  Text: Susie S. Lee
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Mycotecture

  Mushroom materials by Ecovative Design

  Text: Susie S. Lee
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Willow Cathedral

  Gothic soft architecture updated

  Text: Elvia Wilk
• MANIFESTO

  MANIFESTO

  Manifesto for Soft Living Architecture

  Against hard inert buildings

  Text: Rachel Armstrong
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Future Venice

  Protocell protection

  Text: Rachel Armstrong
• PHOTO BOOTH

  PHOTO BOOTH

  In the Photo Booth with...

  Owen Hatherley

  Text: Rob Wilson
• KLAUSTOON

  KLAUSTOON

  Klaustoon

  XVIII. Dawn of the Planet of the Grapes

  Text: Klaus
• NEXT

  NEXT

  Next

  School's Out

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Tumblr

Uncube is brandnew and wants to look good.
For best performance please update your browser.
Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 (or higher), Safari, Chrome, Opera