Includes bibliographical references.

Editorial / Helen Castle -- About the guest editors / Neil Spiller and Rachel Armstrong -- Spotlight : visual highlights of the issue -- Introduction : it's a brand new morning / Neil Spiller and Rachel Armstrong -- Structure and the synthesis of life / Martin Hanczyc -- Defining new architectural design principles with 'living' inorganic materials / Leroy Cronin -- Dream a little dream / Mark Morris -- An architectural chemistry / Omar Khan -- Protocells : the universal solvent / Neil Spiller -- How protocells can make 'stuff' much more interesting / Rachel Armstrong -- Soil and protoplasm : the hylozoic ground project / Philip Beesley and Rachel Armstrong -- Authorship at risk : the role of the architect / Dan Slavinsky -- Back to the future / Paul Preissner -- Line array : protocells and dynamic structure / IwamotoScott Architecture (Lisa Iwamoto) -- AVATAR and the politics of protocell architecture / Nic Clear -- Counterpoint : bettering biology? / Bill Watts -- Proto-design : architecture's primordial soup and the quest for units of synthetic life / Neri Oxman.