Algeanator

Studio Pierandrea Angius

Tutors Angel Tenorio, Anna Kondrashova

Team Devansh Khera, Aruna Subramanian, Yaodong Xu

The thesis responds to the challenge of giving back to nature instead of causing harmful pollution to the environment. One of our main design drivers was to tackle air pollution in coastal cities by capturing carbon emissions and cleaning the air with the use of the facade.  Algaenator provides a mobile community for a new way of living, by exploring the possibilities of creating pneumatic activated spaces that allow transformable units to adapt to the environment. The effective change of form is designed to help with the movement through a series of mechanical systems within. The main design feature for reducing air pollution is using micro algae. Several case studies helped us in understanding the performance measures and effectiveness of the outer facade with units which harvest micro algae. This not only aids in creating a community but has a long-term effect in  protecting the environment for the future generations. The project is situated in the neglected urban fabric of Mumbai. By focusing on the less developed city areas allowed to instigate newer upcoming communities in the eastern waterfront. The resulting proposal has the potential to rejuvenate the whole area and improve city access by connecting the nearby ports. Water-based community created in this way is self-sustainable, producing enough energy for their own needs and a number of public units that can be used for varies functions. The organizational structure consists of attracting forces around which units revolve and create different configurations. The communities get formed by a combination of four types of units: a living unit which allows users to inhabit, a flat walkable algae farming unit providing open spaces, a covered algae farming unit consisting of enclosed spaces, and an energy unit which converts algae slug into biofuel providing the means for harvest energy to sustain the communities.