A design that takes its cues from natural processes for creation is referred to as biophilic – rather than green design, which is used to keep harm from coming to the environment, biophilic design imitates the processes that allow the natural world to survive. Biophilic design has been used in a 3D printing construction project with living materials before, and now multidisciplinary artist and architect Philip Beesley has used the design philosophy in his latest work, Astrocyte, which was recently displayed at Toronto's EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology. Beesley, of Philip Beesley Architect Inc. (PBAI), is a professor at the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture, as well as the director of the Living Architecture Systems Group. "PBAI Studio works with a wide consortium of artists, engineers, scientists, and researchers as a central member of the Living Architecture Systems research group. We explore the possibilities of next generation architecture, responsive environments, digital media and immersive sculpture," Beesley told Farmboy Fine Arts. "So we are asking, how might buildings and our environments begin to know and care about us?

Philip Beesley's Astrocyte aims to show that architecture can be more than just ornamental. Built from acrylic, mylar, sensors, custom glasswork, 3D-printed lights and using AI, chemistry and a responsive soundscape, it not only invokes emotional reactions but reacts to participants' movements and gestures. The giant, delicate-looking structure (inspired by astrocyte nerve cells), also prompts unusually respectful interactions from human observers. The aerial scaffold structure was part of Toronto's Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology (EDIT 2017), and hosted at an abandoned Unilever soap-manufacturing factory. It was built from 300,000 components by Philip Beesley Architect Inc. (PBAI), in collaboration with Beesley's Living Architecture Systems Group at the University of Waterloo.