Algalsphere

is a collaborative project between Lichen Kelp (Seaweed Appreciation Society international) and Architect Luca Lana (Q-Studio) to create a transportable seaweed bath.

The bath will be heated using alternative energies, feature a semi transparent membrane for a private version of public bathing and incorporate kelps and other seaweeds for their bio-mutual regenerative properties.

Bathers can choose from a selection of seaweed based waterproofed texts from a curated kelp library to read while they soak.

Algalsphere, Section 2020 Design Luca Lana, Image: Gemma Cooper

Algalsphere, Section 2020 Design Luca Lana, Image: Gemma Cooper

The Algalsphere will be rolled out in multiple locations across the city and will travel to regional areas, creating an inland micro ocean experience for landlocked zones in a post travel context as well as an intimate algal immersion for coastal communities. The work is equally suited to reimagining concrete urbanised spaces as an aquatic zone or set against green landscapes alongside referenced bodies of water.

Algalsphere, Plan 2020 Design Luca Lana, Gemma Cooper:

The Algalsphere is designed to appeal to those who are marine bio-curious, open to immersive group learning, algal contemplation and queer ecologies and willing to playfully expand their notions of environmental art action, ocean philosophy and the wellness of other-than-human entities. Through the sharing of safe harbored waters with othered bodies- both human and algal- the focus shifts from a luxurious, human centric leisure activity to an exercise in closeness and increasing familiarity with the all too oft overlooked organism; seaweed. The Algalsphere is for people who don’t have a hot tub at home, for people who can’t get to the beach, for people who want to meet other people in a non traditional learning environment, for people interested in radical, portable and future focused architecture, for people who want to learn about marine ecologies, and most of all the Algalsphere is for seaweed.

































 






Luca Lana Q Studio, Steam Forum 2018. Mpavillion. Photo by Nadia Soltani.

While in the pod, the audience will soak with seaweed and human collaborators. They will simultaneously relax into the warm water and womb-like environment while being positively challenged by the intimacy and otherness of the lifeforms surrounding them, the pulse of the city through the semi transparent latex walls and the (radical ecology and) playful climate conversations being generated around them. Some of these experiences and learnings, like the ambience of the environmental pod-tecture will for many be transmitted via osmosis along with the beneficial nutrients proffered up by the marine algae, others will be received gently and dynamically through conversation, texts and wayfindings. After exiting the algae pod the audience will be transformed on different levels. Their skin will feel great, for one, but bigger concerns will be preoccupying them. The transactional relationship between human and algae will have morphed. They will feel restored and re-energised to reposition themselves in roles of ocean restoration. By reentering the seaweed web portal, pathways to new versions of biomutual sea changes become visible. Their relationship to their usage of public space will have temporally, spatially and dramatically shifted. By creating an encounter with marine algaes and a space for shared conversations around ocean ecologies within an experimental bubble, the Algalshpere has provided them with a glowing model of the possibilities inherent in a future populated by symbiotic relationships between art, architecture and marine science.

 

The Algalsphere was developed as part of the Test Sites program supported by the City of Melbourne.

We are currently in talks with multiple partners for a presentation of the first Algalsphere prototype for late 2021/2022. Please contact Lichen Kelp if you would like to discuss opportunities for presentation.

We acknowledge that we are developing this work on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri-Willam people of the Kulin Nation and that this land was never ceded. We acknowledge the traditional owners of all sites we work on. SASi is committed to developing respectful connections through consultation to Salt Water Peoples as custodians of the marine ecologies we work amongst.

Image by Lichen Kelp