Green Design

The world’s first algae-powered building recently opened in Hamburg! Dubbed the BIQ House, the project features a bio-adaptive algae facade and it will serve as a testing bed for sustainable energy production in urban areas and self-sufficient living buildings.

The Green Africa Group predicts that buildings will fundamentally transform over the next fifty years due to developments ranging from jet-powered maintenance robots to high-rise farms and photovoltaic paint, all of which are already in development. But first and foremost, we envisions a movement towards living buildings that respond and adapt to the conditions around them. “The urban building of the future fosters this innate quality, essentially functioning as a living organism in its own right – reacting to the local environment and engaging with the users within”. The BIQ House is the first major step towards that vision.

The facade of the BIQ House is designed so that algae in the bio-reactor facades grows faster in bright sunlight to provide more internal shading. The ‘bio-reactors’ not only produce biomass that can subsequently be harvested, but they also capture solar thermal heat – and both energy sources can be used to power the building. This means that photosynthesis is driving a dynamic response to the amount of solar shading required, while the micro-algae growing in the glass louvres provide a clean source of renewable energy. The integrated algae-based system will be put into full operational mode at an inauguration event later this month.

From the extreme to the sublime – from living hi-tec buildings to electricity saving luminous paints that lit up your home at night – whatever your needs may be, we can assist you. Homes, hotels, offices, government, hospitals, architects, designers, etc. can benefit from our consultation and construction proposals.