The Canada-based group, called the Living Room Collective, dubbed the exhibit Picoplanktonics. The installation at Venice Architecture Biennale, currently underway in Venice, is meant to explore the biological “definition” of regeneration.
The concept combines photosynthesis and biocementation. Cyanobacteria convert sunlight and CO₂ into oxygen, but also turn CO₂ into solid minerals, like carbonates. These minerals act like cement, locking away carbon permanently and helping reduce atmospheric CO₂.
Living Room Collective’s lead and biodesigner Andrea Shin Ling told designboom that, to architecture, ‘regenerative design’ means circular or upcycled material systems. “In Picoplanktonics, we are talking about the biological definition of regeneration, which means the literal ability to regenerate or renew from damaged or dead parts,” she adds. The idea is that the bacteria “cooperate in a human-initiated fabrication process.”