Built

Biology.

We are creating a world where buildings are biologically grown.

Why?

The world will need to construct 2.5 billion new buildings in the next 20 years to meet the population migration and about 12 million houses every year to rebuild the ones we are losing due to war and natural disasters. But the building industry is the largest carbon-emitting industry today contributing 36% of global carbon emissions. To navigate the existential risks of the climate crisis, there is an urgent need to upgrade our construction technology for our collective future.

What?

We are developing a new bioengineered system of construction that is fundamentally based on the biological process of photosynthesis. The system aims to fulfill and outperform current standards of building construction but in the process sequester carbon dioxide. And thereby transforming the act of constructing human habitats from the largest carbon-emitting activity to the largest carbon-sequestering one.

How?

We have invented the technology of solid-state photosynthetic bioprocess engineering that enables us to harness the evolutionary properties of ancient cyanobacteria species in a scalable and economically efficient manner. The technology allows us to grow living photosynthetic tissues that are lightweight, load-bearing, insulating, and translucent. This is our first step towards creating a biologically grown built environment.

Close up of the photosynthetic structural tissue

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Photosynthetic

Structural

Tissue

Physical properties

Biological properties

Grown with living photosynthetic cells.

Prototypes

Working demonstration of 4-meter-scale prototypes of the Photosynthetic Structural TIssue at the Bioscope Pavillion at St. Andrews Botanic Garden. In collaboration with Studio Biocene. More information here.

Vision

“If there is one way better than the one we have,

then you may be sure that it is nature’s way.”

- Aristotle

It is unfortunate that the very way humans, as a species, make our shelters in the world is the biggest threat to the future of our planet. We believe that in order for our generation to navigate the climate crisis, we must radically rethink the way we construct our buildings. Our mission is to harness carbon-negative structural construction processes already present in living organisms and make them widely accessible to our society to create a future that is safe and sustainable.

Team

Prantar Mahanta Tamuli

Founder
Director of Technology

Prantar is a Biochemical Architect. He is a Ph.D. scholar at the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at University College London and the inventor of the solid-state cyanobacteria bioprocess engineering technology. He is also a professionally qualified Architect with double gold medals and he has a decade of experience in the building and construction industry working for large scale projects centred around ecological restoration, biodiversity rejuvenation, and sustainable development.

Dr. Steven Roberts

Co-founder
Director of Administration

Steven has more than 30 years of experience as the former COO of Barclays, Head of Culture and Transformational director, chief scientific Advisor and Founder of Barclays Eagle Labs. He has extensive experience in Portfolio Management, Business Relationship Management, Risk Management, Finance, and Stakeholder Management. He has served as a non executive director (and Chair) of many joint ventures and subsidiaries of Barclays. He also has a PhD in Geophysics from Cambridge University.

Andrew Gray

Co-founder
Director of Operations

Andy is the chairman of the Devon County Agriculture Association and Trustee of The West County Rivers Association. He has more than 25 years of experience in engineering, operating and optimizing large scale regenerative farming-based processes and practices. He has successfully led the 13-generation old historical Elston Farm, the M C Kelly enterprise and the EV quarry in Devon. He has experience as one of the largest employers in the South West region of UK with an extensive local and international supply chain and distribution network.

Gerard Toplass

Non-Executive Director
Construction

Gerard is a seasoned serial-entrepreneur with five successful exits and a leading voice in the building industry for 17 years. He was the founder of the Pagabo Group, UKs leading social value, procurement and contract & risk management platform for the Construction Sector. Pagabo manages over £2b of UK construction projects annually through their ecosystem of 300 construction suppliers. He has extensively worked with key stakeholders in the building indsutry and has a fundamental understanding of the operations of the construction sector.

Caroline Muggridge

Head of Finance

Caroline has a unique combination of skill set as a qualified Chartered accountant with a Master's in business management and a degree in psychology. She has extensive understanding of financial strategy, operational structuring, management accounting, leadership and cultural transformation. She has more than a decade of experience in financial management in public, private and non-profit sectors and has previously served as the Head of Finance and Corporate reporting at the University of Exeter and Strategic Finance Manager at Price Bailey LLP.

Erica Neve

Head of Communications

Erica has 20 years of experience in combining communication, education, behaviour change, and technology to create transformation programs and campaigns for a wide range of audiences from household brands, and small charities, to major government departments. With the personal mission to help find solutions to the climate and biodiversity emergency she has helped several companies achieve sustainable growth., Erica is also on the board of The Eden Project and a board advisor for AimHi Earth, a climate communication and technology business.

Dr Brenda Parker

Bioprocess advisor

Brenda is a biochemical engineer and Associate Professor of Sustainable Bioprocess Design at the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering. Her research focuses on industrial biotechnology, in particular the use of photosynthetic organisms. Her approach is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together the fields of engineering, molecular biology and synthetic biology. Brenda’s research into scale up of microalgal processes for recombinant protein production, bioremediation and nutrient recycling has resulted in numerous scientific publications.

Prof. Marcos Cruz

Advanced Architecture Advisor

Marcos is a Professor of Innovative Environments at The Bartlett, investigating design that is driven by advances in bio-technology and computation. Marcos' previous work on Neoplasmatic Architecture was awarded the international RIBA prize for research in 2008. His 15-year practice work collaboration with Marjan Colletti led to over 30 projects, which were exhibited and published in over 300 publications and exhibitions, including the Venice and São Paulo Biennale, the Royal Academy of Arts, SCI-arc and TADA Centre Taiwan, amongst many others.

Dr. Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer

Biophysics Advisor

Hannah is a Biophysicist Postdoctoral Researh fellow at the Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter. She has an extensive scientific education in Natural Sciences, Chemistry, Materials Science, Nano technology and Biophysics all from the University of Cambridge. Her current work focuses on using interdisciplinary analytical technqiues to study electrical signalling, motility and embodied intelligence of single-cell microorganisms. She has expertise in advacned digital data analytics, microscopy and electrophysiology.

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