M.Arch Thesis, 2014
While recent developments in bioreactor technology focus mainly on industrial applications, there is evident potential in translating the engineering principles of a bioreactor into the architecture of a building—making it possible for algae to act as a productive component within a building envelope, while emulating the oxygenating benefits of hectares of forestland.
As highly efficient photosynthesizers, algae produces 70-80% of all oxygen on earth! Algae biomass is also a valuable product, and is widely used in health and wellness industries. This makes it an important technology to assess when evaluating renewable resources for the built environment. Furthermore, urban algae production should focus on the visual and experiential impacts it can provide to city dwellers, offering an alternative source of ecology and sense of ‘green space’.
For the architect, adjusting qualitative parameters such as form, light or occupant comfort take priority over quantitative parameters such as maximizing biomass yields. Qualitative parameters include: the ability to modulate light and shade, or the visual interest provided by its transformation and movement between growth cycles. For this, an ease in generating a networked path within the reactor around irregular contextual conditions is required and, therefore, geometries offering plasticity are desirable.
The algae textile uses parametric design algorithms to generate its form. First as a set of points that are mapped over a surface, then connected using a voronoi grid. Spheres are then mapped onto these points—larger spheres are programmed to aggregate around denser point locations—and connected to form the algae textile’s meshwork.
What is geometric plasticity? In mathematics, plasticity is used to describe discrete differential geometry: random triangulation and emergent conformal patterns, like in the study of fractals. In neuroscience, it describes how neural structures in the brain change through experience, and in biology, it describes how organisms can change their phenotype in accordance to their environmental surroundings: the branching structure of corals to optimize sun and shade conditions for photosynthesis. In all cases, they are derived through evolved physiological or morphological mechanisms used to cope with contextual fluctuations, and a major component in achieving geometric plasticity. The algae textile takes cue from these natural phenomena.
By embedding productive functions within material, the desire for emergent, complex and optimized qualities within traditionally rigid systems, therefore, incites a method of design where geometry is optimized and where material is machine.
—supplying a source of ecology to purify air and uplift an occupant’s well-being,
—supporting the growth of a renewable resource for a self–sufficient urban lifestyle, and
—controlling light and shade over an expanse of glass within designated areas of the textile.
1. An inoculation and harvest system:
For starting a culture, the inoculation system fills the textile with growth medium (blue line) and then injects a concentrated algae culture (orange line). This is left to grow and photosynthesize. To maintain an existing culture once it has grown, a portion of the culture is extracted from the textile and directed to a harvesting tank (green line). The inoculation system then injects only fresh growth medium into the textile to dilute the culture and start a new growth cycle.
2. An air circulation system:
Pressurized air is injected at floor level and travels upwards through the textile. This feeds the algae with CO2 as it photosynthesizes and agitates the culture to promote its growth. The resulting oxygen produced by the algae is exhausted at ceiling level and can be fed into the building’s ventilation system thereafter.
If an algal–urbanism were implemented, the proposal envisions how material surfaces could be designed with an agency in mind, to perform productive tasks (filtration, harvesting, energy production, etc.), and introduce alternative modes of ecology to highly dense urban environments.
It has been important to identify the challenges associated with using photobioreactors in an urban context, and to establish what characteristics are desirable when used in a building. As the proposal has shown, materials developed for living organisms must not only define a form specifically tailored to the growth mechanics of that organism, but they must also satisfy demands given by a building’s construction to ensure their prolific use. This is what the algae textile strives to explore, challenge and test.