EcoLogicStudio has designed the Bit.Bio.Bot exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which invites visitors to taste freshly harvested algae and consider growing it in their own homes.
Combining architecture and microbiology, the exhibition shows how city dwellers could purify the air, sequester carbon, gain a sustainable food source and enjoy a greater connection to nature by cultivating their own algae.
The Bit.Bio.Bot exhibition explores ways to live with and eat algae
Algae are powerful photosynthesisers and can consume more carbon dioxide than trees.
London-based EcoLogicStudio, which has been working with the ancient microbes for 10 years, describes them as having "a unique biological intelligence" because their metabolism is so efficient. It features PhotoSynthEtica curtains, which purify the air
In its exhibition, it presents two architectural systems for harnessing this power through domestic-scale bioreactors ? one in the form of "living cladding" that turns walls into air purifiers, and another in the form of a vertical garden that allows for algae farming.
Algae are among the most nutritious organisms on earth, and the two kinds that EcoLogicStudio are growing in Bit.Bio.Bot ? spirulina platensis and chlorella ? are already widely consumed as health supplements.
The curtains' pattern is informed by the surrounding brickwork
To explore their culinary potential, there is also a third installation, the Convivium, a table where people can ...