ALGAE – POWERING THE FUTURE HOME
We love it when we come across furniture that embraces sustainable design in some way. So you can imagine our delight when we saw this part furniture design showcase, part futuristic lab experiment happening in Pittsburg.
Called Living Things, the exhibition features pieces of photosynthetic furniture that not only generate light and heat but actually “eat” any excess carbon dioxide in the home.
The secret to their multi-tasking is algae, which is sent through more than half-a-mile of intricate piping and fed into hand-blown glass vessels filled with alkaline water. The glass vessels act as high functioning photobioreactors which provide heat, light, agitation, air supply, nutrient and waste control to the living algae inside.
Found all over the world, this versatile algae can survive and thrive in all kinds of environments and is even sold as a supplement in health food stores.
Now on display at the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art in Pittsburgh, these experimental installations explore how organic matter can be used in everyday domestic settings and built environments. Popping up from tables, sprouting from the walls, sitting on the floor or hanging from the ceiling – who knows, in the near-future you might be living alongside a microorganism farm in our Modscape homes?
