Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The surprising growth of urban settlements runs in parallel with the surprising
waste of our resources and of our energy that the above demand, generating thus
an imbalance between the availability of production in Nature and the capability of
plunder of the environment by humans. With more than half the world's popu-
lation living in cities, it is crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a new
model of city is required.
7.1.2 City as an Energy Bio-Factory: Cultivating Algae
on the Surface of Architecture
Reliance on energy is at the core of twenty-first century society. There is a steady
increase in demand and a foreseeable shortage of supply set to worsen as existing
resources continue to be drained. Consequently, a change in existing habitat
models is vital. According to this statement Cervera and Pioz architects have
researched on a new proposal with an aim to transform the envelope or surface of
our buildings and cities into ''Energy Factories''. The purpose is to combine the
regeneration, reutilisation and rehabilitation of existing urban fabric with the
creation of freshly conceived green building typologies able to generate energy on-
site and to establish a self-sustaining 24 h multifunctional city area. As per the
notion of ''redefining what is possible in the places we live and work and play'',
Energy Factories suggest a timely holistic approach that defies the detrimental
belief in continuously consuming the new and discarding the old, which rates so
high in environmental costs.
Research on algae is a field of growing interest, development and experimen-
tation in the world and is presented as a valuable alternative to meet the needs of
mankind in the twenty-first century. The using of living matter as part of the
construction and use of buildings as a base or support for the cultivation of living
matter is a promising path that now begins its journey. The works presented here
come from the project entitled ''VIDA-BIOCAS, A Bio Self-Sufficient City from
Algae'' developed by a consortium of companies specialized in energy, algae
cultivation and, in our case, innovative sustainable architecture. This long-term
and large scope project (13 companies, 4 years and 18 million euros) 1 is co-
financed by the Spanish Government as a result of a competitive process and opens
highly groundbreaking proposals that overcome the current technology of mic-
roalgae production in architecture, still at a very initial stage (Fig. 7.1 ).
The basis of the proposal is the combination of the living with the inert, the
biological with the architectonical, giving rise to a new concept that could be
baptized as ''Living Architecture''. The project is based on the integration of:
 
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