We’ve featured algae here before, and we were mostly in awe. After all, who could have known that this ultra-simple plant-like life-form could have so many applications?—as medicine, fuel, fertilizer, biofilter, and even food.
The Urban Algae Canopy is the latest attempt to fuse biology and architecture, with smarter, more responsive controls.
With regards to algae in architecture, algae has time and again proven to be a dependable if not icky building component. Last year, Arup unveiled the BIQ building which uses algae that generates power, captures carbon dioxide, and insulates the façade.
Algae in Responsive Structures
The latest attempt to meld algae with architecture is the Urban Algae Canopy project by UK firm ecoLogic Studio. The designers are dubbing it “algaetecture”. The project uses an ETFE cladding modified by CNC welding technology to tap into the wonderful versatility of algae.
Designed to be a living, breathing, fully responsive structure, the canopy is infused with algae that grows more abundantly during hot sunny days, effectively blocking excess sunlight and heat.
Various sensors also control the flow of water and carbon dioxide into the tubings. What’s more, real-time data fed into those sensors—such as the number of visitors in the area at any given moment—can actually influence the structure’s behavior.
Designer Cesare Griffaa poses in front of his Urban Algae Canopy (Image from Archinect.com)
The Urban Algae Canopy will be showcased at the Expo Milano 2015.
Why Algae in Architecture
The appeal of algae in architecture isn’t so surprising. It’s low-maintenance, tough, and weather-resistant, making it an ideal front-liner for buildings especially in this age of climate change. And it blends well with any architecture, a comforting blur of green that self-effacingly fades into the background. You only know it’s algae because you’ve been told so. Otherwise, you’ll never figure it out.
Where algae really shines is its ability to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen in turn—the most natural air-conditioning you can get. As a matter of fact, the Urban Algae Canopy promises to deliver the same amount of oxygen as four hectares of forest.
Once spent, the algae can be harvested and turned to biomass which can generate renewable electricity that can power a building’s lighting system—or as a nod to self-sufficiency, it can provide power to very mechanism that maintains them.
Clearly, algae ticks off all the check marks in our sustainability checklist. Once the structures holding them are finally refined and perfected over time, we might see the humble algae performing at their best.
Irony
In many ways, plant-based concepts for buildings such as the Urban Algae Canopy are laudable for their effort to fuse biology and architecture in smarter ways than ever before.
But it’s not without a slight hint of irony. Historically, humans have cleared forests and woodland and marshes to make way for buildings, human settlements, and other structures, as well as to mine them for resources and building materials. By doing so, we’ve effectively undermined the natural air-conditioning system of this world—the very lungs of our planet. Along the way, we’ve also displaced the biodiversity thriving in that area.
And now, faced with warming climates, humans rely once again on plants for cooler, oxygen-rich building interiors. This time, we’ve utilized simple unicellular ones called algae (with not much biodiversity in them, no matter how much of them you grow). We ingeniously coat our buildings with them so we can pat ourselves in the back.
