Architect, urban designer and ecologist Claudia Pasquero and architect, author and educator Marco Poletto founded in 2005 ecologicStudio, an architectural and urban design practice working on the intersection of bio-digital design, urban design, and biology computation. One of the central axes of their practice is what they called  “systemic” design, ‘a method defined by the combination and integration of systemic thinking, computational design, biotechnology and prototyping’ that define new “ecology” of space and behaviour.

ecoLogicStudio has developed prototypes and installations for major architectural biennales and projects like “metaFOLLY” and HORTUS are part of prestigious permanent collections (FRAC Center in Orleans and ZKM in Karlsruhe, respectively). One of their latest projects is Photo.Synth.Etica, a large-scale installation designed for their first collaboration with Climate-KIC whose is committed to promoting new models to solve the global climate crisis. For this installation, an “urban curtain” composed of 16, 2 x 7 metre modules with a serpentine design that captures and stores CO2 from the atmosphere.

Photo.Synth.Etica envelopes the first and second floor of the main façade of the Printworks building at Dublin Castle. ‘Each module functions as a photobioreactor, a digitally designed and custom-made bio plastic container that utilises daylight to feed the living micro-algal cultures and releases luminescent shades at night.’ they told us. CO2 molecules and air pollutants are captured and stored by the algae, and grow into biomass.

ecologicStudio told us that some of their forthcoming projects include a photosynthetic sculpture for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a research project involving the use of bio gel instead of water as the algae medium, 3D printing techniques to prototype architectural photobioreactors, and the design of a façade system for a new museum of microbes in Innsbruck in Austria.

Text by CLOT Magazine (Twitter @clotmagazine)

Website www.ecologicstudio.com

(All photos courtesy of ecologicStudio, copyrighted ©NAARO)