HORTUS isn’t like any other greenhouse you can imagine – well it comes with the atmospheric aspects of a green living environment (clean air and bright sunlight). But there are no plants. HORTUS (Hydro Organisms Responsive To Urban Stimuli) is a new exhibit from ecoLogicStudio that invites visitors to engage with 325 transparent “photobioreactor” bags to produce green energy and learn about the organisms that make it possible.
The exhibition space looks something out of a sci-fi movie, with bags filled with green matter (biomass and carbon dioxide) and bioluminescent bacteria dangling from the ceiling. It’s from these organisms that can in theory, green energy can be delivered. There may be a lot of science talk, but how that information is relayed to visitors is what makes HORTUS a more unique “greenhouse” – it offers interactivity. Each sack comes with a large plastic tube, into which carbon dioxide can be blown from our breaths – giving life to the residing algae. QR codes on each bag let visitors get information about the life form that they have just given help to, which can also be tweeted. It’s from these social interactions that a virtual garden, displayed within the exhibit, is given life within it self. The installation is giving visitors a chance to more easily learn and access how biomass and bacteria can be used for eco-living through 21st century technologies.
Designed for the Architectural Association in London and available for viewing until mid February, HORTUS puts the opportunities of renewable energy and understanding right in our faces, showing everyone that green living is not a sci-fi movie but a real opportunity, so much so that you can put your mouth on it.
