{"id":690,"date":"2025-06-12T23:30:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T23:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/?p=690"},"modified":"2025-06-13T10:15:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T10:15:30","slug":"3d-printed-biostructures-with-live-bacteria-capture-carbon-dioxide-from-air-at-venice-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/3d-printed-biostructures-with-live-bacteria-capture-carbon-dioxide-from-air-at-venice-biennale\/","title":{"rendered":"3D printed biostructures with live bacteria capture carbon dioxide from air at venice biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"

3D printed biostructures with live cyanobacteria in venice<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Living Room Collective uses live cyanobacteria within <\/span>3D printed<\/b><\/a> biostructures<\/b><\/a> to capture <\/span>carbon dioxide<\/b><\/a> from air in the Canada Pavilion at the <\/span>Venice Architecture Biennale 2025<\/b><\/a>. Named Picoplanktonics, the <\/span>exhibition<\/b><\/a> commissioned by The Canada Council for the Arts is on view from May 10th to November 26th, 2025. <\/span>designboom speaks with Living Room Collective\u2019s lead and biodesigner Andrea Shin Ling<\/b> about the project. In our <\/span>interview<\/b><\/a>, she says that architecture often uses the term \u2018regenerative design\u2019 when referring to circular or upcycled material systems. <\/span>\u2018In Picoplanktonics, we are talking about the biological definition of regeneration, which means the literal ability to regenerate or renew from damaged or dead parts,\u2019 <\/span><\/i>she tells designboom.<\/b><\/p>\n

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The research team has merged two ancient metabolic processes for Picoplanktonics: photosynthesis and biocementation. For the former, they turn to cyanobacteria, one of the oldest groups of bacterial organisms on the planet. <\/span>\u2018Cyanobacteria are among the first photosynthetic organisms and are believed to be responsible for the Great Oxygenation Event, where 2.4 billion years ago, the atmosphere transformed from a high CO2 environment to a high O2 environment because of photosynthesis,\u2019 <\/span><\/i>Andrea Shin Ling explains<\/b>. They can also produce biocementation, or the process of capturing carbon dioxide from air and turning it into solid minerals, like carbonates. Because of this, the resulting minerals act like \u2018cement\u2019 and can store the carbon permanently, keeping it out of the atmosphere. <\/span><\/p>\n

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all images courtesy of The Living Room Collective | photos by Valentina Mori<\/a>, unless stated otherwise<\/p>\n

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Infusing the bacteria during the printing stage<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Before bringing them to Venice, Andrea Shin Ling and the Living Room Collective <\/span>fabricated<\/b><\/a> the 3D printed biostructures at ETH Z\u00fcrich\u2019s laboratory. The biodesigner shares with us that when they make these structures, they already infuse the living cyanobacteria during the printing stage instead of later on. Then, they need to let the bacteria grow and take care of them so they can grow. This means they have to provide enough light, warmth, and humidity so that they can proliferate and slowly harden the prints.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018The idea is that the bacteria cooperate in a human-initiated fabrication process and, with our care, can continue and finish that process (in this case, hardening the printed structures they live in),\u2019<\/span><\/i> says Andrea Shin Ling. <\/b>She adds that for the 3D printed biostructure with live cyanobacteria in Venice, favorable conditions mean warm sunlight, high humidity, and access to salt water.<\/span> \u2018These are conditions that are common in Venice and achievable in the Canada Pavilion, which informed our design process,\u2019<\/span><\/i> the biodesigner explains to designboom.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Living Room Collective uses live cyanobacteria within 3D printed biostructures to capture carbon dioxide from air<\/p>\n

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Microorganisms that can repair themselves to a healthy state<\/b><\/h2>\n

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In Picoplanktonics, the Living Room Collective works with bacteria as the living component of their material system. It has the ability to grow and die within the 3D printed biostructures, as shown in Venice, and the colony can restore itself under favorable conditions after periods of decline. Andrea Shin Ling says, however, that the process isn\u2019t necessarily consistent since it depends on the environmental conditions at a particular point in time.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018So, for instance, a bioprint might dry out if the air is too dry that week, and many of the bacteria die. But because the system is regenerative, the bacteria population has the potential to restore itself when favorable conditions return and then continue their carbon sequestration work,\u2019<\/span><\/i> she shares with designboom.<\/b><\/p>\n

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these biostructures are inside the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025<\/p>\n

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During their research process, the group has also had samples where the bacteria have gotten \u2018sick\u2019, worn out, or where they looked like they were over-oxidized. With some care, the live cyanobacteria were able to repair themselves back to a healthy state. This is what Andrea Shin Ling means when she describes regenerative design. It looks more into the potential of biological material systems that are dynamic and restorative.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018But their responsivity can also create situations that we don\u2019t want. So much of the project is then trying to understand what is causing these situations and monitoring conditions so that we can respond accordingly,\u2019<\/span><\/i> the biodesigner adds. Visitors to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 can see the research process and progress of Picoplanktonics firsthand inside the Canada Pavilion. It remains on-site from May 10th to November 26th, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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the research group takes care of the bacteria throughout the exhibition to maintain their healthy state<\/p>\n

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the bacteria need warm sunlight, high humidity, and access to salt water to thrive<\/p>\n

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the research group already infuses the living cyanobacteria during the printing stage | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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the bacteria harden the printed structures they live in | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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the research team has used ancient metabolic processes for Picoplanktonics | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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the cyanobacteria can also produce biocementation, or the process of capturing carbon dioxide from air<\/p>\n

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Living Room Collective\u2019s lead And biodesigner Andrea Shin Ling<\/p>\n

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the exhibition is on view until November 26th, 2025<\/p>\n

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project info:<\/b><\/p>\n

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name: <\/b>Picoplanktonics<\/span><\/a> | <\/span>@picoplanktonics<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

group:<\/b> The Living Room Collective<\/span><\/p>\n

team:<\/b> Andrea Shin Ling Nicholas Hoban, Vincent Hui, Clayton Lee<\/span><\/p>\n

commission by:<\/b> The Canada Council for the Arts<\/span><\/a> | <\/span>@canada.council<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

event: <\/b>Venice Architecture Biennale<\/span><\/a> 2025 | <\/span>@labiennale<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

location:<\/b> Calle Giazzo, 30122 Venice, Italy<\/span><\/p>\n

dates:<\/b> May 10th to November 26th, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n

research and development:<\/b> Andrea Shin Ling, Yo-Cheng Jerry Lee, Nijat Mahamaliyev, Hamid Peiro, Dalia Dranseike, Yifan Cui, Pok Yin Victor Leung, Barrak Darweesh<\/span><\/p>\n

photography:<\/b> Valentina Mori<\/span><\/a> | <\/span>@_valentinamori_<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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production<\/b><\/p>\n

eth zurich:<\/b> Huang Su, Wenqian Yang, Che-Wei Lin, Sukhdevsinh Parmar; Tobias Hartmann, Michael Lyrenmann, Luca Petrus, Jonathan Leu, Philippe Fleischmann, Oliver Zgraggen, Paul Fischlin, Mario Hebing, Franklin F\u00fcchslin; Hao Wu, Nicola Piccioli-Cappelli, Roberto Innocenti, Sigurd Rinde, B\u00f6rte Emiroglu, St\u00e9phane Bernhard, Carlo Pasini, Apoorv Singh, Paul Jaeggi; Mario Guala, Isabella Longoni;<\/span><\/p>\n

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toronto metropolitan university: <\/b>Venessa Chan, Minh Ton, Daniel Wolinski, Marko Jovanovic, Santino D\u2019Angelo Rozas, Rachel Kim, Alexandra Waxman, Richard McCulloch, Stephen Waldman, Tina Smith, Andrea Skyers, Randy Ragan, Emma Grant, Shira Gellman, Mariska Espinet, Suzanne Porter, Stacey Park, Amanda Wood, Lisa Landrum, Dorothy Johns, Cedric Ortiz<\/span><\/p>\n

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university of toronto: <\/b>Daniel Lewycky, Philipp Cop<\/span><\/p>\n

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visualisation:<\/b> Adrian Yu, Nazanin Kazemi, Ariel Weiss<\/span><\/p>\n

structural advisors:<\/b> Andrea Menardo, Kam-Ming Mark Tam<\/span><\/p>\n

graphic design:<\/b> Shannon Lin<\/span><\/p>\n

website:<\/b> Sigurd Rinde, Shannon Lin<\/span><\/p>\n

local project logistics:<\/b> Tamara Andruszkiewicz<\/span><\/p>\n

project advisors: <\/b>ETH Zurich, Benjamin Dillenburger, Mark Tibbitt<\/span><\/p>\n

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support:<\/b> Canada Council, Digital Building Technologies, Institute of Technology & Architecture, D-ARCH, ETH Zurich, Department of Architectural Science, Toronto Metropolitan University, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada; Advanced Engineering with Living Materials (ALIVE) Initiative, ETH Zurich; Additive Tectonics GmbH; ABB Switzerland; Vestacon Limited and NEUF Architect(e)s<\/span><\/p>\n

The post 3D printed biostructures with live bacteria capture carbon dioxide from air at venice biennale<\/a> appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3D printed biostructures with live cyanobacteria in venice   Living Room Collective uses live cyanobacteria within 3D printed biostructures to capture carbon dioxide from air in the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Named Picoplanktonics, the exhibition commissioned by The Canada Council for the Arts is on view from May 10th to November…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.drlelandwhitson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}