Marina Miceli
Europe Press Office,London
The Algae House”, a new book on the world’s first building equipped with an algae bioreactor façade, is to be launched on 8th November at the 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale.
The book has been developed by Edith Hemmrich, Mark Blaschitz and Jan Wurm, all of whom played key roles in the creation of the BIQ House and its algae façade.
Together with three other "Smart Material Houses", the prototypical building by SPLITTERWERK and Arup forms part of the International Building Exhibition 2013 in Hamburg. Microalgae are cultivated in glass photo bioreactors to generate energy and, at the same time, control the light and shade into the building.
With its innovative floor plan typologies "Hamburg Apartment" and "Milan Apartment", this "Case Study House" presents contemporary refinements of Frank Lloyd Wright's "open plan", Adolf Loos's "Raumplan", and Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky´s "Frankfurt Kitchen".The publication features recent essays, an initial summary and detailed plans and visuals from the first hand-drawn sketches, floor plans and cross-sections. There is also a photo essay of the project by the Austrian architectural photographer Paul Ott.
"The Algae House" book is now available.