More often than not, the harm inflicted upon individuals and ecosystems comes, not as the result of a focused attack, but as a consequence of persistent ignorance. In a society that typically rewards conformity and shuns subversive thoughts, discussions and action, it becomes difficult to question and confront traditional notions pertaining to the image of both people and other sentient beings in the ecosystem. For instance, nature, beyond trees, flowers and a few plants, is often deemed harmful, dirty and infection-inducing. Hence, instead of attempting to understand the benefits of algae and other microorganisms, we usually remove them completely from our habitats. It is construed acceptable to design sanitised spaces in a manner such that they repel the infestation and growth of microorganisms.

London-based ecoLogicStudio is a practice that is built around designing innovative projects that are guided by the intent of exploring the potential of this oft-overlooked arena in the ecosystem. The architecture and design innovation firm, founded by Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto in 2005, specialises in biotechnology for the built environment. The experimental design studio in the United Kingdom integrates systemic thinking, computational design, biotechnology and digital prototyping to examine the untapped potential of the biosphere and utilise these learnings to design both, our built environment and the constituents that inhabit it. Their new book, Biodesign in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Deep Green, published in 2023, illustrates the studio’s evolution over the years—with a collection of some of their most significant projects undertaken between 2012 and 2022. It also delves into Pasquero and Poletto’s collective research and individual practice-based PhDs.

The book's title summarises three recurrent themes prevalent in ecoLogicStudio’s research. These include blue-green master planning, biodesign applied to architecture, and artificial intelligence as a medium for the design of future cities. “Biodesign in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Deep Green is our second book about the potential of biotechnology for shaping the evolution of contemporary architecture and design. The focus of this book is the pervasive topic of design intelligence, extending its definition to encompass both biological and digital realms,” Pasquero and Poletto share in the preface of the book.

The book includes a prologue by Sir Peter Cook and an epilogue by Professor Mario Carpo and is divided into two main parts. While the first part, titled PhotoSynthetica, illustrates design solutions that engage the urban microbiome and seek to achieve an immediate impact, the second part, under the moniker Deep Green, delineates concepts that span across a larger spatiotemporal frame. These are projects that transcend human perception and life span and imagine changes that can impact geographical and geological forces.

Some of the projects excerpted under ‘PhotoSynthetica’ are BioBombola (domestic algae garden); BIT.BIO.BOT (experimentation of the domestic cultivation of the urban microbiome); Storytelling Bio.Curtain (an exploration of the cognitive potential of photosynthetic architecture); Bio.Tech Hut (a self-sufficient, carbon neutral and nutritionally circular dwelling); PhotoSynthetica Dublin and PhotoSynthetica Helsinki (large-scale urban curtain installations that can absorb carbon dioxide); BioFactory (growing microalgae-based raw materials on building walls); AirBubble (biotechnological playground that integrates air-purifying microalgae); SuperTree (a living bio-digital sculpture); H.O.R.T.U.S. XL and the PhotoSynthetica Tower (architecture that is receptive to microbial life); Arbor (a bio-artificial system for wood); bI.O.serie (an interior panelling system that can absorb carbon dioxide); and meta-Folly (a sonic pavilion that emulates experiences in nature). This section also theorises and explains the conceptual reasoning behind reimagining aesthetics and systems in private and public realms.

‘Deep Green’, comprises a series of essays and design projects undertaken by ecoLogicStudio, as part of their broader investigation into a new aesthetic for ecological architecture. The authors cite philosophies by the likes of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek; Timothy Morton, professor at Rice University in Texas; and English anthropologist and linguist Gregory Bateson, and argue that the disrupted ecologies cannot be revived solely by re-greening global ecosystems. Instead, we need to expand our consciousness to explore and engage with the darker side of the ecology and append them as intrinsic components of our built environment. Doing so will also reveal the computational power (as well as other benefits) of non-human sentient beings. Some speculative projects enlisted in this portion of the book include Les Jardins Fluviaux de la Loire (proposal of a public fluvial garden in Loire’s riverbed); Solana Open Aviary (an augmented ornithological park); The Anthropocene Island project (an urban centre emerging from the city’s waste in Tallinn, Estonia); and Biocoenosis Nest (a symbiotic landscape that caters to all sentient beings); amongst others.

Through the book, the authors invite readers to think about AI as a ‘slime mould, a spider web, a microalgae colony or a mycelium network.’ Just like these organisms embody a certain intelligence in their morphology, behaviour and appearance, the architectures and landscapes imagined by ecoLogicStudio, too, bear a certain cognitive potential that permits them to grow, evolve and adapt. “ecoLogicStudio proposes design innovations that do not seek to extract energy and raw resources from the planet. They grow and evolve through the re-metabolisation of waste or the filtration of pollution, in what appears to be a constant regenerative process, a new kind of artificial circularity,” mentions an excerpt from the press release.

While, on the one hand, the authors discuss the untapped potential of the invisibilised aspects of the natural ecosystem, on the other hand, Pasquero and Poletto consider the necessity of recalibrating traditional notions of cleanliness, correctness, as well as the idea of aesthetics (in tandem with our habitats and built environment) to holistically transform our natural and built terrains.

Click on the banner video to view STIR’s conversation with Claudia Pasquero, one-half of ecoLogicStudio.