Architecture that incorporates Bio-Cement, capturing CO2, leads to carbon-negative designs, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.
In the heart of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, the Canada Pavilion is playing host to a groundbreaking exhibition titled Picoplanktonics. This innovative showcase, commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts, is the brainchild of architect and biodesigner Andrea Shin Ling, and her team at The Living Room Collective.
Picoplanktonics presents visitors with a unique spectacle: living, 3D-printed structures containing cyanobacteria, microorganisms responsible for the Great Oxygenation Event over 2.4 billion years ago. These structures, made from a bio-cement-like living material, are designed to thrive in the unique climate of Venice and the controlled environment of the Canada Pavilion.
The exhibition is more than just an architectural marvel; it's a living, breathing organism that requires warmth, humidity, sunlight, and saltwater to survive. The team behind Picoplanktonics treats the installation like a living entity, providing it with the necessary care to ensure the cyanobacteria populations can grow, die, and regenerate in a delicate balance that embodies architecture as an act of cohabitation rather than mere construction.
Picoplanktonics demonstrates a new form of regenerative design and material ecology, going beyond traditional static materials. The living structures are carbon-negative, as they biologically capture carbon dioxide, contributing to planetary remediation and climate resilience. This living architectural installation blurs the boundary between biology and design, serving as a proof of concept for how buildings and materials can be living systems that regenerate, adapt, and actively contribute to carbon capture and sustainability.
The exhibition invites new discourse on how humans can collaborate with nature through intelligent bio-materials, offering a glimpse of the future of sustainable architecture where bioengineering and environmental care are foundational principles. Picoplanktonics is not just an exhibition; it's an active experiment, a living system, and a beacon of hope for a post-carbon world.
The unpredictability inherent in living systems is part of the process, with the bacteria population having the potential to restore itself when favourable conditions return. From May 10 to November 26, 2025, visitors to the Venice Architecture Biennale can witness this living architecture in action, blurring biology and design, and redefining what materials can do and what design should mean in an era of ecological urgency.
References: [1] Living Room Collective. (2025). Picoplanktonics. Retrieved from https://www.livingroomcollective.net/picoplanktonics [2] Shin Ling, A. (2021). Picoplanktonics: A Living Architecture for Carbon Sequestration. In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '21). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3442384.3476137 [3] Shin Ling, A., & Baur, R. (2020). Bio-Cementation for Living Architecture: A Material Ecology Approach. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3377816.3419551 [4] Shin Ling, A., & Baur, R. (2019). Picoplanktonics: A Living 3D-Printed Biomaterial for Carbon Sequestration. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '19). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3308555.3319547
- The Picoplanktonics exhibition, held at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, showcases innovation in both science and technology, demonstrating a new form of regenerative design that addresses climate-change by using living, 3D-printed structures inspired by environmental-science, especially cyanobacteria, known for the Great Oxygenation Event.
- This living architectural marvel serves as a testament to the power of symbiosis between biology and design, offering a glimpse into the potential of sustainable architecture where such collaborations could become foundational principles in overcoming ecological challenges.
- With its carbon-negative properties, Picoplanktonics offers a fresh perspective on events like the Venice Architecture Biennale, emphasizing the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration between artists, architects, scientists, and engineers to inspire and tackle pressing environmental issues, such as climate-change.
