A variety of fungal species isolated from the facades of buildings in the coastal city of Izola, Slovenia.
Microbial tattoos transform buildings into living structures. The project is European and promises to help the environment by removing carbon from the atmosphere while producing oxygen.
A group of European scientists is developing innovative technology that could turn the way buildings interact with the environment.
The project to which they called Remedy aims to create microbial tattoos – standardized layers of living microorganisms – which can be printed on the surfaces of buildings.
Funded with almost 3 million euros by the project brings together researchers from Austria, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Living tattoos will be composed of two layers, explains one of the collaborators in the project, Carole Platefrom the Technological University of Graz, to.
The first, “high resolution pigmented paint that defines the visual pattern”; The second living layer, “a thin biofilm that develops from microorganisms applied through biological paint” at 9.4 billion square meters to build or rehabilitate the EU over the next 25 years – a new border for microbial cultivation.
“This biofilm is expected to remain thin and therefore almost transparent, although some coloring or texture variation may occur. The aesthetic impact will be carefully studied and specific tests are foreseen as part of the project,” says the researcher.
But the concept goes far beyond aesthetics. Tattoos are being designed to offer a series of environmental and structural benefitsaccording to the Technological University of Graz.
“The goal is to create a beneficial microbiome for buildings, resistant to pathogenic microbes and able to repair surface cracks in itself,” explains Plancchette, who adds that the project may even help remove carbon from the atmosphere while oxygen is produced.
Some strains could also support bioremediation or issue bioluminescencegiving buildings a soft shine.
Although the identity of the microbes involved in the project has not yet been released, the team is looking for those capable of forming “stable and functional consortia” – microbial communities that can prosper together over time.
PLANCHETTE is also developing Specialized Jet Printing Systems of ink capable of dealing with living inks. He is confident, but he also admits, “We are entering unknown territory.”
