“Can we co-operate with living systems to construct spaces that work to remediate the planet rather than exploit it?“.

Documenting Picoplanktonics, the Living Room Collective project for the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, was like seeing the beginning of an answer to this question materialise. These large-scale 3D printed structures contain a live cyanobacteria, a species of picoplankton, that harden the structure over time as they consume and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In counterpoint to the trees inside and outside the Pavilion, it was fascinating to observe how the shape of these organic, living structures brought to mind industrial artefacts – such as smokestacks – but reversing their environmental impact.