Holobiont Interactions

The holobiont, a term popularized by Lynn Margullis in the ‘70s, encompasses the notion of host and symbiont to redefine the notion of the ‘individual’. The boundary of the self becomes porous to include the complex relationships between a host organism and its associated microbiome, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms.

Those microbes are an integral part of, and are affected by, our environment. As such, the individual microbiome—whether it lives on the skin, gut, mouth or elsewhere—manifests the continuum between organism and environment. It is a powerful tool for studying the impact of the environment on humans, and ultimately a vector with which to intervene through engineered landscapes.

Questions we are exploring in this topic are:

How can we design for the human holobiont?

What are the metrics we need to establish in urban environments for more-than-human design?

What are the implications and responsibilities?

Outcomes

Title	Type	Venue	Date	People	Topics	Projects	Link
tHrIVE	Conference PresentationExhibitLLIAward	2023 BioDesign Challenge, Museum of Modern Art, NYC	06/22/2023 → 06/23/2023	Sheila Atieno Diedre Brown Tori Coleman Ands Sanchez Anshika Srivastava	Holobiont Interactions Microbiomes and the Anthropocene Biological Metrics and Design	Aerobiomes as seen by Honeybees	www.biodesignchallenge.org
Assessment of Hyperlocal Urban Aerobiomes	Conference Presentation	52nd International Conference on Urban Affairs, New York, NY	04/25/2024	Diedre Brown Progga Nabiha Bhuiyan Harry Trethowan Tori Coleman Elizabeth Hénaff	Holobiont Interactions, Resilient Cities	Urban Aerobiome Microclimates	urbanaffairsassociation.org
Behind the Paper: Holobiont Urbanism	Invited Article	Nature Microbiology	2023-03-30	Elizabeth Hénaff	Holobiont Interactions	Aerobiomes as seen by Honeybees	microbiologycommunity.nature.com
“Growing Indoor Environmental Infrastructure: Designing for Microbial Diversity with Implications for Pollutant Metabolism and Human Health.”	Publication	Research Directions: Biotechnology Design, 2024, 1–38	04/21/2024	Elizabeth Hénaff Phoebe Mankiewicz	Holobiont Interactions	Green Walls and the Indoor Microbiome	doi.org
Developing design criteria for active green wall bioremediation performance: Growth media selection shapes plant physiology, water and air flow patterns.	Publication	Energy and Buildings 260, 111913 (2022)	2022-04-01	Elizabeth Hénaff Phoebe Mankiewicz	Holobiont Interactions	Green Walls and the Indoor Microbiome	doi.org
Reciprocity in the Multispecies City	Conference Presentation	Civic Art Lab, NYC	2023-10-28	Elizabeth Hénaff Heather Parrish, Leonard Roussel, Seth Wenger	Holobiont Interactions		www.greenspacenyc.org
Holobiont Urbanism | Palazzo Mora	Exhibit	Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy	05/01/2016	Elizabeth Hénaff	Holobiont Interactions		artsandculture.google.com
Assessment of Urban Aerobiome Microclimates	Conference Presentation	8th Annual Urban Soils Symposium – Metabolism of Cities ,The Arts Center at Governor’s Island	12/12/2023	Diedre Brown Harry Trethowan Progga Nabiha Bhuiyan Tori Coleman	Holobiont Interactions	Urban Aerobiome Microclimates	www.youtube.com