Despite their well-known advantages, traditional engineering methods are inflexible and unreliable when compared to biological organisms. The experts behind the HYDRA project, therefore, are contemplating a novel architecture for the development of artefacts inspired by cell-biology and based on simple building blocks. The potential of the new design standard will be exemplified through the construction of robotic systems that can change morphology, and result in flexible, robust and applicable artefacts far beyond any known conventional engineering perspective.