The co-founder of The Living, David Benjamin is blazing a trail
in bringing synthetic biology to architecture. Along with his
partner at The Living, architect Soo-in Yang, Benjamin has
already created paradigm-shifting projects, such as Living
Light, an interactive canopy in Seoul that reacts to air
quality; and Amphibious Architecture, which communicates the
level of pollution in New York’s Hudson River. These projects
entice people to participate in their environments in new ways,
while making them aware of how they’re constantly changing. At
the Conversations in Design symposium hosted by the Interior
Design Show in January, Benjamin spoke on the theme of crowd-
sourcing as it applies to his firm’s projects as well as those
by his students at Columbia University. Benjamin and his
colleagues at Columbia developed a framework for students to
share architectural tools, and he’s also created a new class
exploring synthetic biology in architecture – a subject he’s
been immersed in since participating in the Nati