By Ziquan Miao

The latest product of environmental conscience is a fifteen unit apartment building recently completed in the German city of Hamburg that has 129 algae filled louvered tanks hanging across the exterior of the south-east and south-west sides of the building. This building is the first in the world to be powered exclusively by algae, which was extracted by the nearby Elbe river. The building is named the Bio Intelligent Quotient (BIQ) house, was designed by Arup, SSC Strategic Consultants and Splitterwerk Architects, and is demonstrating the ability to use algae as a way to heat and cool large buildings. The design and construction of the BIQ has taken three years and nearly 6.5 million USD, all of which was funded by the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA).

The mechanism works by filling large thin rectangular clear cases with algae. The algae live in water solution and are provided nutrients and carbon dioxide by an automated system. By attaching each tank along the outside walls of the building onto scaffolding that allows for the turning of the tanks toward the sun, the technology essentially functions as solar collectors. Interestingly, if algae populations exceed the capacity of the tanks, a portion of the algae is taken inside to be converted into biogas. The tanks also help keep the building cool as well as act as a sound buffer; the building makes use of both solar thermal and geothermal energy properties allowing it to be functional without any fossil fuels. Currently, the building is serving as the first experimental trial for fossil fuel free buildings; if the design proves to be feasible, then it may in fact serve as a working model when erecting such buildings in other locations.