Together with the city of Braga and the Foundation Francisco Manuel dos Santos, INL inaugurated the Urban Algae Folly, in Praça da República, in Braga (Portugal). The Urban Algae Folly design by ecoLogicStudio is an interactive integrating living micro-algal cultures, a built example of architecture’s bio-digital future. “Sensing, power, and communication are some of the distinct features of living organisms. How can we use nanotechnology to bring these bio-inspired features to structures, buildings, and entire cities? The Urban Algae Folly experiment invites us to consider some possibilities for the near and long-term future”, said Lars Montelius, Director-general of INL. Microalgae, in this instance Chlorella, are exceptional photosynthetic machines; they contain nutrients that are fundamental to the human body, such as minerals and vegetable proteins; microalgae also oxygenate the air and can absorb CO2 from the urban atmosphere ten times more effectively than large trees. The innovative architecture of the Urban Algae Folly originates from the evolution of the well-known ETFE architectural skin system; in this instance, it has the ability to provide the ideal habitat both to stimulate Chlorella’s growth and to guarantee visitors interaction. In any given moment the effective translucency, the colour, the reflectivity, the sound and productivity […]
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