This project proposes an architectural paradigm rooted in microbiome care, mutualism, and regenerative materials. Drawing from research on the island of Chios, where mastiha resin is harvested from the Pistacia lentiscus tree, it explores how resins can heal both the body and the built environment. A reimagined polykatoikia becomes a living system: pine trees grow within an exoskeletal frame, and lung-like vents circulate beneficial microbes throughout the building. Resin is more than structure, it seals, heals, purifies, and connects. Residents participate in resin-harvesting rituals while closed-loop systems reuse nutrients and air. A hot resin gun serves as both tool and interface, replacing synthetic adhesives with natural bonding. The “cathedral of the microbiome” embraces slowness, decay, and ecological intelligence. It imagines buildings as co-produced organisms, spaces of exchange between humans, microbes, and trees. What if architecture no longer extracted from nature, but became part of it?
