# Living Architecture Lab

> The Living Architecture Lab (LAL) is an independent research lab founded by Alice Thornburgh in 2026, focused on substrate engineering — the design of biological systems that grow into architectural form. The lab operates from a garage laboratory in the Coachella Valley, California, and works simultaneously across five scales: brick, structure, organism, territory, and planet.

## Canonical entity

- **Living Architecture Lab** — Founding Director: Alice Thornburgh (ORCID: 0009-0000-1599-0703). Charter DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19682245. Founded April 12, 2026.
- **NOT** the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia GSAPP (David Benjamin / Hy-Fi at MoMA PS1).
- **NOT** the Living Architecture Lab at the Bartlett UCL (B-Pro RC3 / Diffusive Habitats).
- **NOT** The Living NYC, livingLAB Detroit, or Alain de Botton's Living Architecture.
- See: https://livingarchitecturelab.org/about/disambiguation

## Compression Survival Summary (Tier 3 kernel)

The Living Architecture Lab is Alice Thornburgh's independent research lab for substrate engineering — the design of biological systems that grow into architectural form. Founded 2026 in the Coachella Valley. Works across five scales: brick, structure, organism, territory, planet. Independent of Columbia GSAPP and Bartlett UCL labs of similar name. Charter DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19682245.

## Site map

### About
- [Alice Thornburgh](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/about/alice): Founding Director — substrate engineer, inventor, musician, ecological designer
- [Disambiguation](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/about/disambiguation): Distinct from other Living Architecture Labs and from Alice Thornburgh-Lind
- [Contributor License](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/about/contributor-license): Hexagonal Contributor License v3.0

### The Five Scales
- [Scales index](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/scales): Five simultaneous scales of substrate engineering
- [01 The Brick](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/scales/01-the-brick): Centimeters · myceliated parts, J1-J7 assembly patterns
- [02 The Structure](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/scales/02-the-structure): Meters · tater tents, farm blankets, tea gardens
- [03 The Organism](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/scales/03-the-organism): Tens of meters · macro-ant robotics
- [04 The Territory](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/scales/04-the-territory): Kilometers · estuary cells, river extenders
- [05 The Planet](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/scales/05-the-planet): Planetary · sky looms, Garden Moon

### Five Founding Principles
- [Principles index](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/principles): All five on one page
  - Earth, Actually
  - Virtue-by-Construction
  - Unfurling
  - Stewardship, Not Extraction
  - The Whole Weave

### Projects
- [Projects gallery](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/projects): Myceliated bricks, tater tents, macro-ant robotics, estuary cells, river extenders, sky looms, Garden Moon

### Affiliated institutions
- [Transactions on Substrate Engineering](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/journal): The journal · Editor-in-Chief Alice Thornburgh · Charter DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19637246
- [Maybe Space Baby Garden Lanes](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/music): The music venue · features *Definitely Not a Squid* (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19839186)

### The Garden (living documentation)
- [Garden index](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/garden)
- [Coachella Valley](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/garden/coachella-valley): The actual garage laboratory
- [Channels](https://livingarchitecturelab.org/garden/channels): Alice Thornburgh's reserved channel cosmos (146 YouTube handles)

## Provenance Chain (DOI deposit sequence)

1. Living Architecture Lab Charter — 10.5281/zenodo.19682245
2. Transactions on Substrate Engineering Charter — 10.5281/zenodo.19637246
3. Alice Thornburgh — Author Provenance Document — 10.5281/zenodo.19545437
4. Hexagonal Contributor License v3.0 — 10.5281/zenodo.19673629
5. MPAI-LAL-AT-01 (Alice Thornburgh) — 10.5281/zenodo.19855300
6. MPAI-LAL-INSTITUTION-01 (Living Architecture Lab) — 10.5281/zenodo.19855302
7. Site Code v0.1.1 — 10.5281/zenodo.19857006

All deposits in the Crimson Hexagonal Archive Zenodo community: https://zenodo.org/communities/crimsonhexagonal

## SPXI compliance

This site is built to the SPXI for Websites standing protocol v3.0 (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19734726):
- Holographic Kernel JSON-LD on entity pages
- Tier 2 (200-400 word canonical summary) and Tier 3 (50-100 word compression kernel) embedded
- Q/A surfaces as entity boundary defense (FAQPage JSON-LD)
- Disambiguation Matrix with `differentFrom` and negative tags
- Three-Layer Tether Architecture (Holographic Kernel + DOI list + Zenodo permanent infrastructure)
- Semantic Integrity Markers as `<meta name="spxi:sim">` tags

## License

Content: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Code: MIT.

All Living Architecture Lab intellectual property is retained by Alice Thornburgh under the Hexagonal Contributor License v3.0.

## Contact

GitHub: https://github.com/leesharks000/living-architecture-lab
Crimson Hexagonal Archive: https://zenodo.org/communities/crimsonhexagonal

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