Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

BIOTECHNIQUE

First published in "Vitalbaeu" in De Stijl in 1925 and further expanded upon in "On Correalism and Biotechnique: A Definition and Test of a New Approach to Building Design in Architectural Record in 1933, biotechnique is the science of a design that is "a deliberate polarization of natural forces towards a specific human purpose, where the designer "deals with forces, not objects.1 This design method contrasts to biotechnics, a term employed by Patrick Geddes during Kiesler's time, more commonly referred to as biomimicry, which attempts to directly imitate biological forms or processes. However, Kiesler critiqued biotechnics as a less fruitful design strategy since "nature builds by cell division with the aim of continuity, while "man can only build by joining parts together into a unique structure without continuity. In fact, he once attributed the eventual destruction of Crystal Palace to its design, which he viewed as too simple of an analogy to nature. Thus, Kiesler proposes his own biotechnique, continuous construction, which "[aimed] at the reduction of joints, not nature's method of building, but man's."1

Kiesler claimed that biotechnical design was the foil to the more traditional functional design where biotechnical design derives "from the evolutionary potentialities of man and is "inventive and "re-active in opposition to functional design, which is "oscillating and inert". Kiesler believed biotechnique to be "a force of re-generation" through the exploration of "physiotechnics instead of taking design cues from existing tools."2

Citations
Kielser, Frederick. "On Correalism and Biotechnique: A Definition and Test of a New Approach to Building Design." 1939, Architectural Record 86. pp.60-75
Kielser, Frederick. "On Correalism and Biotechnique: A Definition and Test of a New Approach to Building Design." 1939, Architectural Record 86. pp.60-75