Rada Daleva’s algae architecture project explores how buildings might work with micro-algae, carbon dioxide, energy and light.
The idea is speculative, but the project has a useful architectural question at its centre: can a building behave more like a living system than a fixed object?
What the project explores
Rada studied architecture at Oxford Brookes University and developed this second-year project around the potential use of algae in future design. The proposal imagines a more symbiotic relationship between people, buildings and nature.
In the project, humans release carbon dioxide, micro-algae capture it, and the biological process supports energy and light. Computational and algorithmic methods are used to simulate algae growth and translate that logic into architectural structure.
Why the algae idea is worth reading
- It connects sustainability to form, not only specification.
- It gives carbon dioxide a visible role in the design idea.
- It uses computational thinking to study natural growth.
- It opens a clear conversation about future environmental systems in architecture.
Portfolio lesson
Speculative projects need careful explanation. The portfolio should make the biological principle simple first, then show how that principle informs structure, atmosphere and inhabitation.
Showcase a sustainability project
Architecture Social Showcase is a useful place for student work that explores carbon, ecology, material systems or computational design.
- Explain the environmental principle in plain English.
- Show how the science changes the architecture.
- Make the drawings easy to understand without a long presentation.
Architecture Social view
Stephen’s recruiter view is that speculative sustainability work can be powerful, but only when the project is easy to explain. Practices need to see the intelligence behind the experiment, not just the ambition.
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