Industrial designer Luis Undritz has created a printer that produces images by projecting light onto algae and is on show as part of the Materialized exhibition at Milan design week.
Defined as "phytoprinting," the process works by using a white-coloured printer that is fitted with a round-shaped digital light processing laser projector (DLP.)
Phytoprinting creates images from algae using light
Undritz designed the printer with a round shape in order to differentiate it from 3D printers, which are generally square in form.
A negative black and white image is digitally fed into the printer, after which it is projected onto the surface of a small piece of material positioned below it. Currently, materials that can be printed on include textiles, ceramics and paper.
The printer projects a negative black and white image onto phytoplankton
Each surface is lined with water, nutrients and a small portion of phytoplankton – a type of microscopic marine algae.
Over a period of three to seven days, organisms begin to grow in the illuminated areas, eventually displaying a fully developed "living" image.
Undritz used materials such as fabric to print with the algaes
The phytoprinting process is influenced by screen printing, which uses traditional ink and a blocking stencil to create an image.
Undritz' phytoprinted experiments include green and dark-red images of cockroaches, shells and leaves, as well as a whimsical depiction of the Bauhaus building.
Undritz is exhibiting his work at Materialized alongside other class of 2021 MA Biodesign students at Central Saint Martins art school in London, which he graduated from this year.
"Initially, the idea for the project came from group work where we were testing how algae react to light," Undritz told Dezeen.
An image of the Bauhaus building is printed with algae
The designer decided to continue experimenting with algae and developed his printer at home using an existing 3D printer. The work took place in early 2020 during the first few months of national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"I did everything at home. I didn't have a scientist around, or a lab to work in," he said. "So then I thought, okay, this could be something that other people could do at home as well."
The round printer uses a digital light processing laser projector
Undritz stressed that phytoprinting has not been developed to entirely replace environmentally hazardous alternatives – such as the use of petroleum-based inks – especially as phytoprinted-fabric is vulnerable to water damage and therefore more of a temporary print.
Rather, the designer said that that he wanted to offer a new and slower printing technique in addition to existing methods. "The images have their own kind of aesthetic," he explained.
Undritz hopes to create a living garment in future
Although currently only operating on a small scale, Undrtiz hopes that the project might eventually develop into something bigger. "I wasn't able to scale up mostly because of space, but for me, the next step is to try to," he said.
"My plan is to collaborate with a friend who is a fashion designer. We wouldn't make a whole collection of clothes at this point, but we want to try and get one outfit out of it – a living garment."
A printed image of a cockroach
Luis Undritz is a German industrial designer based in London.
Materialized is taking place from 5 to 10 September at Spazio Gamma as part of Milan design week 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Originally designed in 1927, Perriand created LC7 for her Paris apartment in the city's Place Saint-Sulpice, a public square. Perriand was known for her commitment to designing products in the interest of functionality.
Perriand originally designed the chair in 1927
The swivel armchair is built to be versatile, with a design that is suitable for a range of environments including restaurants and offices.
Cassina has reissued Perriand's iconic chair for its Cassina PRO – I Maestri collection with a five-leg configuration made of tubular steel.
This version has five legs
LC7 features a distinctive backrest and seat cushion padded with polyurethane foam and polyester wadding.
The swivel armchair comes in a fabric or leather coating, and is finished in polished chrome or painted in either grey, mud, light blue, green, ivory, brown, or a colour called LC black.
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Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter has revealed the first photographs of the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, a climate research and visitor centre on Greenland's rugged coastal landscape.
Located 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the centre will function as a hub of research, education and exhibitions exploring the impact of climate change in this region.
Ilulissat Icefjord Centre is located on Greenland's west coast
The architecture studio, led by Danish architect Dorte Mandrup, designed the building with a twisted, triangular structure and a rooftop viewing platform. The aim was to make it appear open and lightweight, so visitors feel connected to the landscape.
"The Icefjord Centre offers a refuge in the dramatic landscape and aims to become a natural gathering point from which you can experience the infinite, non-human scale of the Arctic wilderness, the transition between darkness and light, the midnight sun, and the northern lights dancing across the sky," said Mandrup.
A series of trusses give the building a twisted form
In line with the building's function, the structure was designed to have a minimal impact on the environment.
To reduce the need for concrete, a material understood to have a significant carbon footprint, Mandrup's team specified a steel frame.
Lightweight steel beams effectively pin the building to the bedrock terrain, allowing it to be slightly raised. This means the space underneath the building can continue to be a habitat for plants and wildlife.
Visitors can access the roof for an elevated view of the Kangia Icefjord icebergs
The main form of the building is generated by a series of steel trusses that gradually curve and rotate as they extend across the landscape. This create the unusual twisted shape, which helps to prevents snow build-up on the roof.
Mandrup likens the form to "a snowy owl's flight through the landscape".
The building includes sheltered, open-air terraces at both ends
The twist also has the benefit of providing pedestrian access onto the sloping roof. This elevated viewpoint naturally forms a new end point for local hiking routes, offering a view out to the icebergs of the Kangia Icefjord.
Interior spaces are fully glazed on all sides, plus there are also some open-air terraces sheltered beneath the roof. The aim was to allow visitors to experience Greenland's dramatic lighting conditions throughout.
Interior spaces are fully glazed so visitors can always see the landscape
"In Greenland, you only have daylight during the summertime. In the winter it's very dark, but you have reflection from the snow and the ground," said Mandrup, speaking about the project while it was still under construction.
"In the summer, the colour of the light is very different; you have blue light on one side and a very reddish light on the other side," she explained. "Hopefully you will experience that when you move through the building."
JAC Studios designed the exhibition, which charts the history of the Arctic landscape
Ilulissat Icefjord Centre is now open to the public, with facilities including an exhibition gallery, a movie theatre, research and educational facilities, a cafe and a shop.
The exhibition, designed by JAC Studios, features archeological objects and films contained in glass prisms that were designed to replicate real-life ice blocks. It also includes ice core drillings, dating from 124,000 BC to the present.
The coronavirus pandemic and climate change will be two of the biggest influences on skyscraper design over the next 20 years, according to experts.
"I think environment and health are two fundamental things, above security, that challenge us all in the industry of the paradigm of the skyscraper," said Gary Kamemoto, principal at Maki and Associates, which designed the 4 World Trade Center skyscraper.
"Covid-19, in a certain way, is a terror threat right now," he told Dezeen, "and I think every single country is grappling with it in many creative and different ways."
Contemporary skyscrapers are still typically designed as sealed environments with predominantly glazed exteriors, which rely heavily on artificial ventilation to prevent overheating.
However, in light of the pandemic, Kamemoto thinks there will be greater demand for naturally ventilated skyscrapers with openable windows to help create healthier internal environments.
Georgina Robledo, a partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners which also designed a skyscraper on the World Trade Center site, agreed.
The trend of curtain walls could come to an end in the next 20 years. Photo is by Ulrik Hasselstrom via Unsplash
"Not to be a cliche, but we have to recognise the change after Covid," Robledo said. "That is a discussion about ventilated spaces and ventilation in highrises."
"I think more ventilated facades are going to come into play, and not just openable windows, I think it's a technology that allows for that fresh air intake at high rise level," she continued.
Kamemoto added that maximising the natural ventilation of skyscrapers can also help reduce their overall carbon footprint.
"High-rise buildings are very energy-consuming," Kamemoto said.
"And for the most part, until recent years, they're completely kind of divorced from the exterior environment, they're completely sealed off, so they depend very highly on artificial ventilators."
With a host of countries now committing to becoming carbon neutral by 2050 to tackle the climate emergency, he said "that whole paradigm has to change".
Photovoltaic surfaces may replace curtain walls
A focus on making skyscrapers more sustainable may also lead to the end of the trend of heavily glazed exteriors, according to Ung-Joo Scott Lee, the New York-based partner at US studio Morphosis.
"I'm not sure if the large use of glass will go on forever," he told Dezeen.
Instead, he said architects should "limit the amount of glass to areas where you really need the view" and experiment with facades that are more opaque or lined with photovoltaics.
"In New York City, some of the most beautiful buildings that you see were done almost 100 years ago," he explained, "they're masonry buildings with more limited windows."
Gensler's chief operating officer Dan Winey told Dezeen that he believes the next 20 years could even see the use of curtain wall systems as electricity generators. Strides have already been made in developing photovoltaic surfaces too, he said, citing Tesla's Solar Roof shingles that are being developed as a way to power homes.
"I think you are going to see curtain walls and buildings that will generate electricity through solar," Winey explained. "The curtain walls themselves will become power generating and they will generate more power than they need."
Avoiding glass will offer "a sense of craft and texture"
Moving on from curtain walls also presents an opportunity to reintroduce texture into skyscrapers, like those built in the 20th century, said James von Klemperer, president at Kohn Pedersen Fox, which has designed four of the world's top 10 tallest buildings.
Von Klemperer described glass facades as "rather blank and inaccessible" and said using more tactile materials like terracotta or masonry can help to humanise them.
"I think we all feel, as a community of architects that we all created and had built too many large expanses of glass in our cities," he explained.
"The way the light comes on to masonry buildings, on the other hand...I was on the top of One Vanderbilt looking down just last night as the sun was setting and to see that light play on the masonry of the city of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and even 1950s is really gratifying."
KPF's 5 World Trade Center will offer "a sense of craft". Visual is courtesy of KPF
This is something that Kohn Pedersen Fox is striving to achieve in its design of the 5 World Trade Centre skyscraper, which is set to break ground soon at the Ground Zero site.
"What we're trying to do with the tall building today is to humanise it in a sense, to recapture some of the scales of an indication of craft which we love in smaller buildings," he explained.
"I think our 5 World Trade Centre building will have some of that recovery, of sense of craft and texture," he continued. "And as far as architectural design can have an influence on our lives, that's very important."
Timber structures could become more common
Maki and Associates' Kamemoto is expecting more frequent use of sustainable materials such as timber in the construction of future skyscrapers.
There has been a recent resurgence in the popularity of wood as a construction material due to its ability to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, but improvements in engineered timbers such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) has also made it more appealing to architects.
"Taking timber construction to a whole new kind of level in high rise design, we've seen that and that is ongoing," Kamemoto explained.
For example, he said, in Tokyo the Japanese timber company Sumitomo Forestry is developing the 350-metre W350 skyscraper.
If built, it will steal the title of the world's tallest timber building from the 85.4-metre-high Mjøstårnet, which has been designed by Voll Arkitekter in Brumunddal, Norway.
More mixed-use skyscrapers expected
One of the biggest changes to skyscrapers in the last two decades has been an increase in mixed-use programmes. Several skyscraper designers believe this trend will only become more common in the future.
Von Klemperer of Kohn Pedersen Fox said mixed-use skyscrapers can help ensure skyscrapers become better assets for the community.
They can also help people to achieve a better work-life balance, he said. For example, a highrise containing workspace and daycare facilities could allow an office worker to spend more time with their child.
"A tall building doesn't have to be only a residential building or only an office building," Von Klemperer explained. "I think because a diversity of use and mixing of uses is good for us, in satisfying the things that we need in our lives."
Timber skyscrapers such as W350 could become more common
Both Chris Lepine, partner at London-based Zaha Hadid Architects and Gensler's chief operating officer Winey believe the rise of mixed-use skyscrapers will also create more opportunities for nature, greenery and farming in cities.
"Skyscrapers will continue evolving to be more human-centric with increasing levels of biophilic design and better amenities," Lepine told Dezeen.
"We'll also see an increase in different tower programmes with vertical structures accommodating varying degrees of mixed-use, public sky gardens, and even vertical farming."
Skybridges could make skyscrapers safer
While taking steps to minimise the impact of skyscrapers on the planet, some architects believe they must also be designed to protect occupants from the effects of a changing climate.
Eui-Sung Yi, the Los Angeles-based partner Morphosis, said designing against flooding will be particularly important.
These conversations began in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy hit New York and caused widespread flooding, he told Dezeen, as "people realised that if you're in a skyscraper in a high rise, you're effectively trapped".
As such, Yi believes "a network of higher infrastructure" including bridges between skyscrapers could become commonplace, ensuring the ground floor is not "the only connective tissue".
Skybridges could help offer protection from flooding
Morphosis partner Lee added that an increased risk of flooding will also require critical building services to be brought above flood plains, rather than hidden in basements as they have been previously.
"The requirement now in New York City is that things like emergency generators, connections to your actual power grid, all have to be outside from the flood plain," he explained.
"That's making the typology safer, and in fact, probably safer than other types of buildings around."
Skyscrapers are "a necessity"
One thing that several architects agreed on is that skyscrapers will remain a vital building typology over the next two decades and into the future.
SOM partner Ken Lewis explained that this is because cities must accommodate growing populations and that towers are the most efficient way to ensure this.
"Cities of the future will need to be even denser to accommodate predicted population growth," he said. "From an urban planning perspective, towers are the most sustainable answer."
Daniel Libeskind, the architect behind the rebuilding of Ground Zero, added that highrises are also an effective way to tackle car hegemony in cities and minimise consumption of land.
"If you don't want to consume more and more land and keep building out and out and out and reinforcing cars and so on, you have to build densely," Libeskind said. "That's why cities originated."
"We cannot consume land by building low buildings and eating up what's leftover of the nature we already managed to destroy," he continued. "[Building tall] is a necessity."
However, Libeskind added that the desire for skyscrapers also goes "beyond the necessity".
"There's a magic to tall buildings," he concluded, "a sort of primordial sense of joy of being able to dominate the city you are in from a higher perspective."
"The truth is that when you're in a high rise in a skyscraper, it's just so liberating in many ways."
9/11 anniversary
This article is part of Dezeen's 9/11 anniversary series marking the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
All shortlisted studios are listed below, each with a link to a dedicated page on the Dezeen Awards website where you can find an image and more information about each studio and its projects.
From next week onwards, you can vote for your favourite project or studio to win the public vote award. Look out for more information on Monday.
Below are all six studio category shortlists:
Above: Neri & Hu have been shortlisted in the architecture studio of the year category of Dezeen Awards 2021. Top: A Space is shortlisted in the emerging design studio of the year category
