We the Bacteria: Colomina and Wigley Rethink Architecture Through Microbes

Key facts

• Book 'We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture' by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, published by Lars Müller Publishers in 2025.
• Central argument: microbes invented architecture; bacteria are the real architects, construction workers, clients, and maintenance workers.
• Modern architecture was shaped by the battle against tuberculosis, which killed up to 1 in 3 people in large cities.
• Architects of modernism described themselves as bacteriologists.
• Buildings are described as 'an expanded gut shared with others' and dynamic ecosystems.
• The concept of 'biotic architecture' is introduced, focusing on coexistence with microbes rather than exclusion.
• The book proposes an alternative history of architecture through the lens of microbes and disease.
• Colomina and Wigley argue that architecture and medicine are inseparable, and that buildings have been unhealthy from the beginning.
• The first permanently inhabited buildings 10,000 years ago were made of lime plaster, which is antibacterial and antifungal.
• The authors advocate for a paradigm shift in design, moving from sheltering life by keeping threats outside to welcoming what threatens.
• They critique sustainability and human-centered design as human-centric, and call for decentering the human.
• The interview with ArchDaily was published on August 06, 2026.