Habitat One, Seoul , South Korea

Habitat One imagines a new architectural model of the carbon-neutral city. The project's vision invites people to experience the possibilities of living in a carbon-neutral world through the featuring of three creations: two visionary Artificial Intelligence videos, a living photosynthetic 3D printed sculpture named Tree One, and the urban Bio Lab. Developed in collaboration with Hyundai Motor Company, the following project was exhibited on March 18th, 2023, and is located at the Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul, South Korea.

One of the Artificial Intelligence-generated videos is projected on the fa?ade of the Hyundai Motorstudio. In its seemingly endless looping, the video simulates several scenarios that envision Seoul's evolution into a carbon-neutral city. In a multi-layered cyclical process, the city grows through re-metabolizing urban air pollution and storing?CO2. High-density metropolitan clusters populated with sky gardens, bio-buildings, and eventually lush urban forests evolve into newly constructed landscapes.

Trees and buildings alternate, evolving from each other, following the circular model pioneered in the Tree One sculpture. This process is visualized in a second AI video, projected inside the foyer and facing Tree One. Each architectural cluster is depicted while growing from a bundle of photosynthetic systems that propel self-sufficiency and the transformation of pollutants into material resources.

At the heart of the main exhibition floor is Tree One, the living carbon-capturing sculpture designed by artificial intelligence and bio-digitally grown. The sculpture re-metabolizes and stores the carbon molecules in it's trunk and canopy while releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. The Tree One exhibited at the Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul integrates 40 glass photobioreactors hosting 500 liters of living Cyanidium algae cultures. These bioreactors can capture as much carbon dioxide as 12 large trees, the equivalent of a small urban forest.

The main structure of Tree One is designed by algorithms whose recognition of arboreal systems negotiates the architectural logic of the column. The Tree One trunk is entirely made of algae-based biopolymers, and its strength derives primarily from the unique pleated morphology inspired by the fibrous trunk of actual trees. Its fabrication was made possible by a pioneering robotic 3D printing process. The fibrous system continues in the large 3D printed canopy in the form of hundreds of thin shading branches hovering above the gallery floor, close to the mezzanine gallery.

The main structure of Tree One is designed by algorithms whose recognition of arboreal systems negotiates the architectural logic of the column. The Tree One trunk is entirely made of algae-based biopolymers, and its strength derives primarily from the unique pleated morphology inspired by the fibrous trunk of actual trees. Its fabrication was made possible by a pioneering robotic 3D printing process. The fibrous system continues in the large 3D printed canopy in the form of hundreds of thin shading branches hovering above the gallery floor, close to the mezzanine gallery.