Photo.­Synth.Etica Helsinki

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Historically one of the defining qualities of architecture its permanence, its hardness and its resistance to change and movement. However every building undergoes periods of more rapid change andevolution when its immovable body becomes softer and more malleable.In this phase the body of architecture appears more akin to the human body or to the other soft and wet organisms that make up the living Biosphere.What if then we could take this temporary condition and transform it into an opportunity to rethink the fabric of architecture, wrapping it into a living membrane that would both protect and connect the body of architecture with the surrounding environment?

And what if this soft and wet skin could literally breath, make use of the energy of the sun to capturemolecules of carbon dioxide and release oxygen? And what if this carbon could be stored in a fibrousbiomass to be used for future textiles?

This is what is happening now to the Nobility House in Helsinki, a prestigious historical building hosting the Helsinki Fashion Week while wrapped by a modular Photosynthetic Urban Curtain designed and produced by Photosynthetica, the living architectural cladding arm of @ecologicstudio The Nobility House Urban Curtain is made of 100 modules each containing 10 litres of photosynthetic microalgae. 6 modules of the curtain capture the same amount of CO2 as a mature tree transforming the House in a biotechnological micro forest.

^{PhotoSynthetica Helsinki CO2 Capturing}

^{Photos: Tuomas Uusheimo}

^{Photos: Tuomas Uusheimo}