Microbial Matters

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley

Image of E. coli bacteria, based on SEM imagery by Alissa Eckert, CDC. From We the Bacteria: Notes toward Biotic Architecture, by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, Lars Müller Publishers, 2025. – Das Bild zeigt eine Darstellung von E. coli-Bakterien, basierend auf Rasterelektronenmikroskopaufnahmen von Alissa Eckert, CDC. Die Bakterien erscheinen in rosa Farbe auf schwarzem Hintergrund. Sie zeigen sich als amorphe, längliche Körper mit einer „behaarten“ Oberfläche, von der lange, tentakelartige Strukturen abgehen.

Join us for a lecture and roundtable discussion to explore alternative design histories viewed through the lens of microbial life — asking why microbes matter for contemporary regenerative and multispecies design cultures.

We warmly invite you to »Microbial Matters« — an interdisciplinary exchange focusing on shifting perceptions of microbial activity in the built environment, design, and material culture. By challenging the modernist impulse to control and exclude microbial life, we open up a dialogue about the active role of bacteria in past and future design practices.

»Microbial Matters« welcomes a lecture by renowned architectural historians and theorists Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley to present their latest book, We the Bacteria, followed by a roundtable discussion with microbiologist Regine Hengge, architects Iva Rešetar and Bastian Beyer, and design and cultural historian, as well as co-director of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material«, Claudia Mareis.

In their research on biotic architecture, Colomina and Wigley explore the intimate entanglements between microbes, bodies and buildings, outlining an urgent manifesto for an alternative architectural philosophy — one that acknowledges multispecies co-existence. In the context of the experimental practices at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« (MoA) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the project »Co-Weaving Biofilms« reimagines human and bacterial weaving through the activity of microorganisms, combining architecture and design with microbiology and materials science. The installation »Co-Weaving Biofilms«, grown from bacterial cellulose, will be on view as part of the program, situating the MoA research within the exhibition space of TA T.

 

Credits

Project lead MoA: Iva Rešetar, Bastian Beyer, and Claudia Mareis

Curation TA T: Felix Sattler

PR MoA: Carolin Ott

Project »Co-Weaving Biofilms«: Bastian Beyer, Iva Rešetar and Regine Hengge, with assistance by Moritz Liedtke

 

Cooperation / Funded by

The event takes place in cooperation with the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, within the framework of the strategic partnership between Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Princeton University, supported by the Flexible Funds of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Next date:

• Date Tuesday, 02/June/2026 17:00 bis 18:30
• Venue Tieranatomisches Theater - Haus 3 (Campus Nord)
• Address Philippstraße 12/13, 10115 Berlin-Mitte