London-based ecoLogicStudio has unveiled a collection of biophilic design products as part of their wider PhotoSynethetica research project. 

The collection includes a desktop biotechnological air purifier, a compostable stool, and a 3D printed jewel made of re-metabolized pollution.

The project was overseen by ecoLogicStudio directors Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, who spoke with Archinect last year on a range of topics related to PhotoSynethetica and ‘ecological intelligence.’ Launched as a research project in 2018 with an academic consortium, the project seeks to “tackle the negative effects of climate change and air pollution on urban wellbeing.”

Each piece in the latest collection has been designed to connect biophilic and design spheres, such as biomass grown from the air purification process becoming a raw material for 3D printing the collection’s compostable stool and jewel. “This collection is born from the dream of growing the city of the future from the waste and pollution of our current fossil civilization. More than products, these first three objects are tools to start a collective process of urban re-metabolization,” noted Poletto.

The collection’s desktop biotechnological air purifier, named AIReactor, comprises an “indoor photobioreactor” capable of absorbing carbon dioxide and pollutants while oxygenating the air. The product’s interlocking structure consists of birch plywood components supporting a lab-grade glass photobioreactor, which hosts up to 10 liters of living photosynthetic micro-algae cultures.

The collection’s compostable stool is formed of biopolymer, a plastic substitute made from re-metabolized pollutants and carbon dioxide. The 3D printed compostable stool, produced in collaboration with Pasquero’s lab at Innsbruck University, is formed of a “unique pleated morphology,” which, like a plant stem, can flex and adapt to the user's body and weight.

Meanwhile, the collection’s bio-digital ring is described by the group as “the closest thing we have come to ‘grow a jewel’ from the emissions of London.” Designed with the aid of AI and bio-digitally grown, each ring is composed of 30% algal biomass, storing approximately the daily air filtration of one AIReactor.

“In this unique object, we can recognize one of the most significant aspects of contemporary technological evolution: its inevitable convergence with living nature,” Pasquero noted. “The ring has a powerful symbolic value. It is a call to collectively re-orient our value systems and to recognize preciousness where now we only see dirt.”

You can learn more about the studio by reading our extensive interview with Poletto and Pasquero here.