In 2025, ecoLogicStudio installed DeepForest³ on the upper floor of the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. The project treats algae, fungi, and cyanobacteria as working parts of a building, not decoration, in line with a wider interest in biotic architecture algae fungi systems. Across its projects since 2015, the London studio has tested how living organisms can filter air, store carbon, and generate energy.
Disclosure: this article is part of a chapter presented in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL, a cultural platform covering architecture, design, and creative intelligence.
A forest that filters air
DeepForest³ was part of the exhibition We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture, curated by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley. From a distance, the installation looks like a small stand of saplings on a polished floor. Up close, it is a working system and a clear example of biotic architecture algae fungi in action.
Co-founder Marco Poletto describes the installation as a “fully functional and tangible biotechnological living system, grounded in the metabolic cycles of algae and fungi.” The studio was founded in 2005 by Poletto and Claudia Pasquero, who continue to lead the practice from London.
The installation includes three main elements. The first are what the studio calls “biodegraders,” built from 3D-printed bark-like shells made of algae biopolymers. Mycelium networks grow inside them and feed on coffee grounds. Over time, the fungi form a sinewy layer that works as insulation.
The second element is a set of glass containers holding 50 liters of living cyanobacteria. The studio calls these “photosynthesizers,” and they pull CO₂ from the gallery air. The third are “carbon storers,” which digest waste and host lichen.
From a pavilion to a city
The studio’s work with living systems began earlier. At EXPO Milano 2015, ecoLogicStudio built The Urban Algae Folly in the event’s central square at the Future Food District. The canopy was made of triangular panels filled with Spirulina, a microalgae that is high in nutrients and captures CO₂.
The pavilion’s triangular panels are glowing with a flow of green algae. The panels glow with a flow of green algae over the central square. The canopy provides shade, and the algae in its membrane grow more on sunny days.
The design depends on people as much as sunlight. When visitors stand under the canopy, the CO₂ they breathe out feeds the algae. In this way, the studio created a symbiosis between the sun, the algae, and people. The pavilion became a living, carbon-consuming system rather than a static shelter, a early case of biotic architecture algae fungi thinking applied at public scale.
In Nyon, Switzerland, the studio extended the approach to a healthcare garden. The AirBubble, completed in 2024, is a circular, tent-like structure of semi-transparent fabric. Its perimeter holds 36 large borosilicate glass bioreactors, together containing 350 liters of living Chlorella cultures.
Living greenery also shapes domestic life, as a Singapore home with lush courtyards shows how plants can be built into everyday living. Singapore house with verdant atriums and water gardens offers a residential counterpart to these ideas.
According to the studio, the system can filter 150 liters of polluted air per minute. The project tests a common assumption that healthy spaces must be sterile. Here, algae and plants serve as infrastructure, and the air quality depends on their growth.
In 2025, the studio built CryoflorE for the Solar Biennial, Soleil·s, at MUDAC. The work was made with the Synthetic Landscape Lab at the University of Innsbruck. It takes the form of a near-hexagonal model of a miniature city, with high-rises filled with cyanobacteria.
The model shows how cyanobacteria could capture electrons from photosynthesis. The studio describes these electrons flowing into copper wires embedded in the streetscape. CryoflorE is an early step toward a city powered by bio-solar energy networks.
Why the home becomes an ecosystem
Pasquero explains the logic behind DeepForest³ in personal terms. “We are now more and more aware that our own nature is cyborgian and collective, and that our own identities extend far beyond the limits of our bodies,” she said. “We are microbial ecosystems, we are algorithmic networks. Our home is our microbiome.”
That idea links the installation to the book that frames it, which argues for biotic architecture algae fungi in everyday buildings. We the Bacteria, written by Colomina and Wigley and published by Lars Müller Publishers, follows their earlier book, Are We Human? The authors examine the sterility of contemporary architecture and its drive to kill bacteria. They argue that this sterility threatens human and planetary health.
The book opens with a line that sets its tone: “this book is covered in microbes.” The authors point to disease in industrialized, developed spaces as evidence. They argue for design that allows microbial life to thrive.
Biotic architecture algae fungi as collaborators
Although We the Bacteria centers on microbes, it also fits the studio’s wider practice. In each project, biotic architecture algae fungi approaches treat algae, fungi, or carbon as active agents. The built environment and the living world stop being separate categories.
These projects suggest that sustainable architecture can do more than shelter people. It can support the organisms and ecological processes that share the planet. When the decisions are made carefully, the studio argues, they can also produce net-positive results for human life.
For a different take on designing around living organisms, Shanghai students’ magpie habitat design in Melbourne plans for wildlife as well as people, which is worth a look.
Taken together, the work proposes a different starting point for construction. Bacteria, fungi, and algae are not pests to remove or raw materials to extract. They are participants. The home, the pavilion, and the city become parts of a wider living system.
Sources & Links
Source: designboom.com
Frequently asked questions
What is DeepForest³ and where was it installed?
DeepForest³ is an installation by ecoLogicStudio that was set up in 2025 on the upper floor of the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. It treats algae, fungi, and cyanobacteria as working parts of a building rather than decoration. It was part of the exhibition We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture.
What are the three main elements of the DeepForest³ installation?
The first are “biodegraders,” 3D-printed bark-like shells made of algae biopolymers, where mycelium grows and forms an insulating layer. The second are “photosynthesizers,” glass containers holding 50 liters of living cyanobacteria that pull CO₂ from the gallery air. The third are “carbon storers,” which digest waste and host lichen.
How much polluted air can the AirBubble in Nyon filter?
According to the studio, the AirBubble can filter 150 liters of polluted air per minute. The circular, tent-like structure in Nyon, Switzerland, was completed in 2024. Its perimeter holds 36 large borosilicate glass bioreactors containing 350 liters of living Chlorella cultures.
Who founded ecoLogicStudio and when was the studio established?
ecoLogicStudio was founded in 2005 by Marco Poletto and Claudia Pasquero, who continue to lead the practice from London. The studio has tested how living organisms can filter air, store carbon, and generate energy in its projects since 2015.
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