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Description

Architects work in the mineral world, in which all design is fundamentally about aggregation and erosion. Even the most austerely, minimalist structures, present aggregations of elements and densifications of matter that weren't there before.

Video 1 | Dune | Magnus Larsson

Through accretive processes, materials become buildings that become cities. A single grain of sand is almost nothing: a splinter of rock, a miniscule fragment of a geological formation, the residue of a microcosmic event. Myriad grains together, however, become almost everything: mesmerizing landscapes, vast deserts, a fluid material capable of being transformed into solid structures, and, ultimately, flourishing cities. In aggregates of sand, we find fascinating forms and emergent patterns, interlocking angular quartz grains, possibilities, potentials, substance.

The Dune project is an architectural speculation aimed at creating a network of solidified sand dunes in the desert. It also advocates a radical shift in structural thinking, away from pre-fabricated or in-situ construction, towards the localized cementation of granular materials, achieved through microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) using the microorganism Bacillus pasteurii, an aerobic bacterium pervasive in natural soil deposits.

Video 2 | Dune | Magnus Larsson

In the right circumstances, the bacterium's enzymatic urease catalyst hydrolyses urea, which – when the process occurs in a calcium-rich environment, binding the individual grains of sand together. The solidification of the sand can be organized into an array of specific spatial structures to create a very narrow and roughly 6,000 kilometres long pan-African city with the capacity to counter the Sahara's shifting sands.

The spatial pockets would help retain scarce water and mineral resources necessary to turn Dune into a micro-environmental support structure capable of assisting the formation of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI). The various spatial pockets within Dune would also serve as habitable and programmable space for a nodal network converging with the planned Sahara Railway.

Dune is an exercise aimed at investigating a more climate-conscious architecture that points towards adaptive responses to the potential threats of extreme environments. The final outcome is a habitable anti-desertification structure made from the desert itself, a sand-stopping device made out of sand. Fraught with challenges and difficulties as this stratagem might be, the Dune project is a beginning, a blueprint, a vision.

Biography

Magnus Larsson, begun his career in journalism and advertising, writing for magazines such as such as Frame, Another, Bon International, The Wire, and working with brands such as Apple, Absolut Vodka, and Virgin. After completion of a Bachelor in Architecture in Oxford, he entered the British Architectural Association.

In July 2009, Magnus Larsson’s presentation at the TED Global Theatre in Oxford and the following public attention, led to a increased interest from several international publications, spanning from Wired UK via Slashdot to American Vogue

Magnus Larsson currently divides his time between worldwide lecturing, two daytime jobs, finishing his first scientific chapter about the Dune process – due to be published by Birkhäuser editors, and deeper investigation on the merging of architecture synthetic biology and biotechnology.