The holobiont, a term popularized by Lynn Margullis in the ‘70s, encompasses the notion of host and symbiont to redefine the notion of the ‘individual’. The boundary of the self becomes porous to include the complex relationships between a host organism and its associated microbiome, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms.
Those microbes are an integral part of, and are affected by, our environment. As such, the individual microbiome—whether it lives on the skin, gut, mouth or elsewhere—manifests the continuum between organism and environment. It is a powerful tool for studying the impact of the environment on humans, and ultimately a vector with which to intervene through engineered landscapes.
Questions we are exploring in this topic are:
How can we design for the human holobiont?
What are the metrics we need to establish in urban environments for more-than-human design?
What are the implications and responsibilities?
Title | Type | Venue | Date | People | Topics | Projects | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Conference PresentationExhibitLLIAward | 2023 BioDesign Challenge, Museum of Modern Art, NYC | 06/22/2023 → 06/23/2023 | Sheila Atieno Diedre Brown Tori Coleman Ands Sanchez Anshika Srivastava | Holobiont Interactions Microbiomes and the Anthropocene Biological Metrics and Design | Aerobiomes as seen by Honeybees | www.biodesignchallenge.org |
 | Conference Presentation | 52nd International Conference on Urban Affairs, New York, NY | 04/25/2024 | Diedre Brown Progga Nabiha Bhuiyan Harry Trethowan Tori Coleman Elizabeth Hénaff | Holobiont Interactions, Resilient Cities |
| urbanaffairsassociation.org |
Behind the Paper: Holobiont Urbanism | Invited Article | Nature Microbiology | 2023-03-30 | Elizabeth Hénaff | Holobiont Interactions | Aerobiomes as seen by Honeybees | microbiologycommunity.nature.com |
“Growing Indoor Environmental Infrastructure: Designing for Microbial Diversity with Implications for Pollutant Metabolism and Human Health.” | Publication | Research Directions: Biotechnology Design, 2024, 1–38 | 04/21/2024 | Elizabeth Hénaff Phoebe Mankiewicz | Holobiont Interactions | Green Walls and the Indoor Microbiome | doi.org |
Developing design criteria for active green wall bioremediation performance: Growth media selection shapes plant physiology, water and air flow patterns. | Publication | Energy and Buildings 260, 111913 (2022) | 2022-04-01 | Elizabeth Hénaff Phoebe Mankiewicz | Holobiont Interactions | Green Walls and the Indoor Microbiome | doi.org |
Reciprocity in the Multispecies City | Conference Presentation | Civic Art Lab, NYC | 2023-10-28 | Elizabeth Hénaff Heather Parrish, Leonard Roussel, Seth Wenger | Holobiont Interactions | www.greenspacenyc.org | |
Holobiont Urbanism | Palazzo Mora | Exhibit | Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy | 05/01/2016 | Elizabeth Hénaff | Holobiont Interactions | artsandculture.google.com | |
Assessment of Urban Aerobiome Microclimates | Conference Presentation | 8th Annual Urban Soils Symposium – Metabolism of Cities ,The Arts Center at Governor’s Island | 12/12/2023 | Diedre Brown Harry Trethowan Progga Nabiha Bhuiyan Tori Coleman | Holobiont Interactions |
| www.youtube.com |
