London-based architecture office EcoLogicStudio harnesses photosynthesis in algae to remove air pollution with this living curtain, designed to rest over building facades.

The studio's Photo.Synth.Etica "urban curtain" is a photobioreactor – an incubator for algae, which carries out the naturally carbon-sequestering process of photosynthesis.

The micro-algae feeds on daylight and air, capturing carbon dioxide molecules and storing them within the curtain, while producing oxygen and releasing it back into the surrounding air.

The curtain optimises this natural process, capturing approximately one kilogram of carbon dioxide per day — the equivalent to that of 20 large trees.

EcoLogicStudio envisages the curtain being integrated into new and existing buildings, and doubling as a sunshade.

Another beneficial byproduct of the process is biomass, which the algae grows from the sequestered carbon, and which can be burnt for energy or turned into bioplastic material, such as that used to make the curtain. The algae is also bioluminescent, casting a faint glow at night.

"The message is one of spatial convergence and connectivity between the financial marketplace of cyberspace and the relative organic molecular transactions in the biosphere," said EcoLogicStudio.

The architects displayed a prototype of the system during the Climate Innovation Summit 2018 in Dublin at the start of November. The installation was stretched over floors one and two of the main facade of the Printworks building at Dublin Castle.

Designers such as Nicolas Roope responded to the UN report by calling the need to avert climate change "the greatest design challenge in history".

#SustainableDevelopment #Sustainability #SDGs #UN #Ecological #Environment #AlgaeCurtains

For more, visit (source): https://www.dezeen.com/2018/12/10/ecologicstudio-algae-curtain-photo-synth-etica/

Image: @socialissuesinworld (Instagram)