Terreform ONE: Coding Plants

If civilization is falling apart, how do we preserve our heritage? The nonprofit architectural research group Terreform ONE offers a radical solution: encoding architectural knowledge into seaweed DNA to create a living time capsule.

For the 19th International Architecture Exhibition—The Venice Biennale, Terreform ONE redefines preservation in Coding Plants: An Artificial Reef and Living Kelp Archive. Moving beyond books, digital records, or the limits of human memory, the group tapped into the DNA of a living organism to encode a fundamental design principle–form follows function–using bioengineering technology. While kelp is technically a macroalgae, not a plant, we use the word “plants” broadly, referring both to botanical life and to systems of production, as in “manufacturing plants.” Kelp serves as our prototype because of its ecological value and potential for DNA-based data storage. The title, Coding Plants, signals a time where living organisms—plant or otherwise—become programmable, functional elements of architecture and infrastructure.

A single gram of DNA can theoretically store up to 215 million gigabytes of data, potentially serving as a rich informational archive. Terreform ONE tapped into this vast potential, using seaweed as a medium for architectural memory. The “form follows function” axiom, popularized by architect Louis Sullivan, has shaped our built environment for over a century. Now, physically embedded into seaweed’s genomic code, the principle is brought to life in a whole new way.

No longer confined to textbooks or the minds of designers, the principle will drift through currents, thrive in ocean depths, and merge with the biological fabric of our oceans for millennia. This is not just preservation; it is evolution. DNA encoded with “form follows function” has become a living, breathing machine for design.

A future beyond human hands
The truth is stark: decades of warnings have failed to prevent ecological catastrophe. Climate change accelerates, biodiversity collapses, and the natural world recedes under human pressure. If the unraveling of civilization is inevitable, how can its sagacity resist erasure? Further, in an age where artificial intelligence accelerates innovation and an endless stream of disinformation threatens to drown timeless wisdom, how do we protect the core principles of architecture from oblivion?

Bioengineering human knowledge into organic life offers a drastic yet pragmatic solution. Organisms persist where traditional buildings crumble. They evolve, adapt, and regenerate. By weaving key design principles into the genetic code of seaweed, Terreform ONE has created a living archive—a machine for memory that could outlast humanity itself.

Rethinking “form follows function”
Terreform ONE chose to encode form follows function not only for its historic significance, but to reclaim its meaning. When Sullivan coined the phrase in 1896, he drew inspiration from nature’s evolutionary logic:

“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling workhorse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law.”

Sullivan saw this principle in the natural world: in the flight of birds, the shape of rivers, and the growth of trees. Yet, over time, modernism reduced form follows function to an industrial slogan, stripping it of its original ecological understanding. This misinterpretation led us astray, accelerating the very crises humanity now faces.

By encoding this rule into seaweed, Terreform ONE turns it to its rightful home—the biological realm where it always belonged. In doing so, they recognize both its power and the failure of its societal application.

A message for the deep future
For seaweed, the end of humankind is not a catastrophe; on the contrary, if freed from human interference, vast kelp forests may again flourish, restoring balance to ocean ecosystems. Hidden within their DNA, a time capsule of anthropological ingenuity is preserved; a living library riding the tides of deep time. In the deep future, when new intelligent life evolves, or distant explorers arrive, they may uncover this genetic message in the DNA of the kelp, just as we once decoded ancient hieroglyphs.

Hidden in the helix of ocean flora, the core message will be revealed: form follows function.

Credits: Terreform ONE

Mitchell Joachim, Peder Anker, Melanie Fessel, Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky.

Studio: Vivian Kuan, Julie Bleha. Design: David Paraschiv, Emily Young, Sky Achitoff, Avantika Velho, JJ Zhijie Jin. Science: Oliver Medvedik, Sebastian Cocioba. Collaborators: Wendy W. Fok. Media: Michelle Alves De Lima. Structural Engineer: Justin Den Herder, PE,  TYLin, Robert Silman Associates Structural Engineers. Research: Nicholas Lynch, Marina Ongaro, Ava Hudson, Jerzelle Lim, Helen Gui. Sponsors: U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, New York University, NYU Global Research Initiatives in the Office of the Provost, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. Special Thanks: Carlo Ratti, Curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition. Victoria Rosner, Dean of Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University.