Algae Green Loop / Influx Studio

Every industrial energy system inscribes its technological order into the urban fabric. Therefore, what shall be the shape and the fingerprint of the next zero carbon economy in the big cities? While the world is looking for alternatives to fossil fuels, Algae is an unlimited source of energy, food, and most important, a remarkable natural CO2 absorber. So, which spatial implications shall have Algae’s new technologies, and which potential integrations could be imagined for Algae bioreactors in central urban areas? Influx Studio believes re-use is by far the most sustainable option: that’s why the key issue is how to anticipate Algae’s green future in the core of the major cities, transforming existing buildings, where most people live and where emissions of CO2 are the most important. More images and project description after the break.This proposal anticipates an Algae retrofitting for one of the most innovative buildings constructed in the Loop of Chicago: The Marina City’s Towers. Promoted as a “city within a city” and built in1964 to stop an exodus to the suburbs, this 20th century masterpiece conceived by the architect Bertrand Goldberg, was not only the tallest apartment building in the world but also the first mixed-use complex in the USA to include housing. Few buildings in the world could have embodied better than Marina City’ towers the spirit of their time, reflecting in such iconic way the pattern of the fossil fuel economy in the built environment.