I had known for years that Johansen was an irrepressible originator and significant contributor in many fields. Life had graced him with a youthful vitality, and even in his 90’s, an unbelievable drive. What I wanted to know was, what is the source of his creative energy and drive, his brilliant inventiveness, his unquenchable curiosity?

Johansen’s accomplishments include fine art, music, writing, teaching, and architecture. Recently exploring the new sciences of nanotechnology and molecular engineering, he has begun working with scientists, physicists, engineers and technologists, in the creation of what he describes as “a new species of architecture” - nanoarchitecture. Designing buildings based upon emerging technologies which may not manifest for two or more generations into the future, Johansen is encouraging and inspiring students, young architects, physicists, technologists, engineers, morphologists, and animators to join him in his visioning of “growing” buildings from the subatomic level.

Programmed to replicate so rapidly that they will be able to be “grown” into structures, Johansen’s futuristic designs are created with seamless continuity: curving walls that merge with rounded ceilings that will be programmed to open or close in response to the position of the sun and time of day, weather conditions, and individual needs of the occupants.

Although some question the probability of built environments that will be designed from the subatomic level, Johansen is undaunted. “I know it will happen,” he announced to a standing-room-only crowd at a “Beyond the Harvard Box” symposium at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. “Eminent physicists agree that a nanotechnological revolution is inevitable.”

(cont.) We sat down to lunch and began to talk about new projects and old times. On one side of our table was the kitchen, simple and functional, set into a 8 foot stone wall. On our other side, a built-in sofa and bookcase configuration wrapped-around a corner of the room, with a 30’ high slanting outer wall behind it. Constructed of milky-white opaque corrugated plastic, the wall had become illuminated in the afternoon sun. transforming it into a dramatic projection screen. With leaf shadows from an outside tree quivering upon much of it, the wall had an energy that made the room feel exciting and alive.