ArchiLAB at FRAC

marcosandmarjan 'Algae-Cellunoi

In FRAC's Permanent Collection.
 
Wall installation at 9th ARCHILAB - Naturalizing Architecture, Orleans France 
Location: FRAC Centre, Orleans Duration: 14.09.2013 - 02.02.2014 
Design: marcosandmarjan and Guan Lee, with Richard Beckett 
Fabrication: Grymsdyke Farm; DMC London 
Algae technology: Marin Sawa with Nixon Group and Hellgardt Group (Imperial College); Richard Beckett (UCL) 
Collaboration: Olivia Pearson: Emu Masuyama; Jessie Lee; Keith McDonald; Jonas Brazys; Cullum Perry  
Sponsors: Bartlett School of Architecture; Grymsdyke Farm; Innsbruck University 

Teams

Architects
: [Ay]A Studio (Jorge Ayala) - France/Mexico
; B+U – United States
; Biothing (Alisa Andrasek) - United Kingdom; Bloom Games (Alisa Andrasek & Jose Sanchez) - United Kingdom
; Niccolo Casas - Italy; ecoLogicStudio – United Kingdom
; Eragatory (Isaie Bloch) - Belgium; EZCT (Architecture & Design Research) - France
; Faulders Studio (Thom Faulders) - United States; Gage / Clemenceau Architects - United States; Gramazio & Kohler / Raffaello d’Andrea - Swiss
; Michael Hansmeyer (avec Benjamin Dillenburger) - Swiss
; Akihisa Hirata architecture office (Akihisa Hirata) - Japan
; junya.ishigami+associates (Junya Ishigami) - Japan; Kokkugia - Australie/United Kingdom; MAD Architects - China; MARC FORNES & THEVERYMANY™ - United States; marcosandmarjan - United Kingdom; MaterialEcology (Neri Oxman) - United States; Matsys (Andrew Kudless) - United States; Achim Menges - German; Minimaforms - United Kingdom; Plasma Studio + Grounlab - China / United Kingdom; Ruy Klein - United States; Jenny Sabin - United States; servo - United States /Sweden
; soma - Austria; SJET (Skylar Tibbits) - United States; SPAN - Austria; Supermanoeuvre - Austria/United States; Wendy Teo - United Kingdom; Daniel Widrig - United Kingdom; Xuberance (Steven Ma) - Austria

; X_TU Architects – France
Designers and stylist: Cmmnwlth. - United States; Iris van Herpen - Netherlands; Joris Laarman Lab - Netherlands
Artists: Federico Diaz – Czech Republic; Perry Hall - United States; Casey Reas - United States; Marius Watz - United States/Sweden

Algae-Cellunoi, installed at the 2013 ArchiLAB exhibition Naturalizing Architecture, is an ornamental wall structure for external use. It is composed of numerous cellular foam components resulting from a computational Voronoi pattern that determined the size and complexity of each cell. A sequence of lofted surfaces follows a gradient of punctuated lines and indentations that vary according to the geometric inclination
of each surface, similar to growth layouts in sea barnacles and shells. To achieve this, the milling path of each cellular component was digitally controlled and manipulated. The result has multiple patterns with gaps and crevices. Each cellular component is seeded with terrestrial algae
that grow in the ridges between the components. The selected algae strains are Neochloris texensis, a soil based algae of the Neochloris genus and Trentepohlia. Furthermore, each cellular component is also designed to host a variety of Objet 3D printed flasks, in which liquid algae
can grow for ground fertilisation or for creating a varied natural ecology on the wall.