Syn.de.Bio is a network of designers, artists and scientists who employ novel design methods and innovative fabrication techniques to explore and manipulate biological material.
In the public square of the EXPO Milano 2015 Future Food District are on show some of the most interesting and innovative solutions of building integrated urban agriculture. The Urban Algae Folly, designed by ecoLogicStudio and located at the District’s entrance, is an interactive pavilion integrating living micro-algal cultures, a built example of architecture’s […]
Algae is the seemingly unlikely term that is being discussed at the heart of EXPO Milano 2015. As part of the Future Food District project, curated by Carlo Ratti Associati at the central crossroads of the EXPO site, a new vision of future bio-digital architectures powered by microalgae organisms has been proposed by the […]
Part of the London Olympic 2012 Event, Alga(e)zebo is one of a number of temporary pavilions unveiled in the city. Located at Euston Square Gardens, this installation consists of a large decorative canopy-structure, a Gazebo. The concept of the Gazebo follows an English tradition in which such filigree construction becomes a jewel that punctuates […]
This visionary “Case Study House” featuring the first algae bioreactor façade world-wide was realised in the frame of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg in 2012 and 2013. As a “Smart Material House”, it combines intelligent materials and technologies with new typologies of living. Photo © Colt International, Arup Deutschland, SSC GmbH […]
‘HORTUS.PARIS’, part of the Alive exhibition at EDF Foundation in Paris, is a new gardening prototype designed to stimulate the emergence of novel material practices and related spatial narratives; the proto-garden hosts micro- and macro-algal organisms and is fitted with ambient light, sensing technologies and a custom-designed virtual interface. ‘HORTUS.PARIS’ proposes an experimental, hands-on […]
In 2010, scientists from Yansei and Stanford University pioneered a technique by where 30-nanometre wide gold electrodes were inserted into the photosynthesising organs – chloroplasts – of algal cells, thus managing to draw a small electrical current from algae during photosynthesis. As advances in nanotechnology lead to increasingly energy efficient products, plant life such […]
The ‘Algaerium Bioprinter’ envisions how microalgal cells can be grown and digitally printed for production of ‘fresh’ food supplements, organic dyes on paper, and printable biological solar batteries. The solar battery application is based on my current laboratory collaboration with biochemists working in bioenergy from microalgae. This Bioprinter concept is backed up by our […]
Exhibition installation at ARCHILAB 2013 – Naturalizing Architecture, FRAC Centre, Orleans France. The installation is an ornamental wall structure for external use composed of numerous cellular components that work as a scaffold for algae to grow. The patterns have multiple patterns with gaps and crevices that aim for a gradual involvement of […]
AqvaGarden is an artificial garden that functions as a rain water distribution and collection system. Unlike conventional recycling systems, AG doesn’t hide its functional apparatus, rather it embodies it in its structured matrix, the branching system. Moreover AG operates as a cooling system through the evaporation of the trickling water. Rain water becomes the […]