BIQ Building - Exterior/Water

Germany's "algae house" or BIQ building incorporates living matter or microalgae into its design. It is the world's first example of a "bioreactor facade" meaning, algae that is produced within the transparent shell are continuously supplied with nutriends and carbon dioxide by a water circuit that runs trough the building's facade.

The algae also reacts with the sun, where in the winter where there is hardly any light in Hamburg for long periods of time, the algae will not naturally propagate and therefore the facade screens become very transparent so that more light can come through into the inside.

When algae have overgrown, they can be harvested and used to make biogas (a renewable energy source made from raw materials) to supply the rest of the building.