LICHENIZED LIVING

Lichenized Living imagines a coastal urban landscape capable of sustaining and regenerating itself. Concrete remains one of the most unsustainable building materials, and yet one of the most common. Looking to lichen as an aspirational manifestation of symbiosis, the team used this mutually beneficial relationship to explore concrete alternatives. Research involved formulating different mixtures for a tri-layered facade made up from mortar, aggregate, water, and nutrients in pursuit of creating a suitable material for algal/lichen cultivation while remaining structurally sound. Culminating in two facade prototypes, one of concrete and lichen, the other from algae and foam glass, the team offers symbiotic materials capable of nurturing self-sustaining livable structures.