Project Highlights

Algae is a resilient organism and comparatively more photosynthetic than trees. This concept has been widely tested in the series. Our tests have shown that 2 m2 of the PhotoSynthEtica urban curtain system is equivalent to one large tree in terms of its CO2-capturing ability.

The individual projects have won various awards: H.O.R.T.U.S. ZKM and Urban Algae Folly Milan were awarded Best Digital Design 2016 by IDEA TOP Shenzen and PhotoSynthEtica Dublin received an honourable mention in the Fast Company awards in 2019. BioTechHut is the first permanent photosynthetic architecture and was shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival 2019. Further to this, Pasquero featured in Wired’s 2017 Smart List, where ‘tech’s biggest names pick the stars of tomorrow’ for her work with bioarchitecture, specifically citing Expo Milano 2015.

Pasquero extended this research as the head curator of BioTallinn, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017, that explored the convergence of biology and computation in urban design and architecture.

45 PhotoSynthEtica Tower Linz, 2019. Atrium view.

46 PhotoSynthEtica Tower Linz, 2019. Façade (detail).

47 The City as Biological Computer, The Gallery at Foyles, London, 2019.

48 XenoDerma, La Fabrique du Vivant, Centre Pompidou, Paris. The Bartlett, UCL Urban Morphogenesis Lab. Claudia Pasquero with Filippo Nassetti and Emmanouil Zaroukas and with research assistants Meng Xuan Li and Xioa Ling.

49 BioTallinn, Tallinn Architecture Biennale, 2017.