Panel session
On 15 October, as part of the ‘We The Bacteria’ exhibition, the VAi is bringing together ecoLogicStudio and Bento Architecture at DE SINGEL in Antwerp for a discussion on the opportunities, challenges and contradictions of designing with living systems.
For much of its history, architecture has been invested in separating bodies from their environments: keeping water out, controlling air, eliminating mould, dirt and microbial life. Yet every building is already inhabited by complex ecologies of bacteria, fungi, plants, animals and humans. The question is therefore perhaps not how to introduce life into architecture, but how architecture might acknowledge and design with non-human forms life.
In the framework of the expo We the Bacteria, curated by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, the Flanders Architecture Institute brings together ecoLogicStudio and Bento Architecture for an evening conversation on the possibilities and contradictions of designing with living systems.
Founded by Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, ecoLogicStudio has spent two decades investigating the convergence of architecture and biotechnology. Its installations cultivate algae, fungi and microbial cultures as active components of architectural environments.
Brussels-based Bento Architecture approaches similar questions from another material and territorial position. The practice experiments with raw earth, locally sourced timber and mycelium while questioning the extractive chains through which architecture is conventionally produced. Their work asks what it might mean not simply to substitute one construction material for another, but to reconsider building as a process of cultivation and decomposition.
Bringing these practices together opens wider questions. If materials can grow, metabolise, reproduce and decay, where does architecture end and biology begin? What becomes of authorship when the behaviour of matter cannot be entirely predetermined?
Dr. Marco Poletto is an architect, innovator, and thought leader in biodesign and climate-responsive architecture. He is the founder of PhotoSynthetica, a design venture scaling nature-based technologies for carbon capture, circular biomaterials, and regenerative lifestyles.
As co-founder of the London-based practice ecoLogicStudio, Poletto has led pioneering work integrating algae biotechnologies into the built environment — from living art to building interiors, urban furniture and consumer bioproducts like the AIReactor.
He holds a PhD from RMIT University in Melbourne and has taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and the Bartlett (UCL) in London, Cornell University, the IAAC Barcelona, and the University of Innsbruck, where he is currently research associate.
Bento is an architectural collective that places material experimentation at the heart of its research and design thinking. Living matter challenges the sustainability of current modes of production and their impact on the way we live. In response to this reality and necessity, Bento’s architects are deeply committed to exploring and transcending material boundaries, building bridges between architecture, art, and design.
The practice continuously moves between experimental phases involving living materials and design phases. These two processes are mutually reinforcing: one questions existing realities, while the other gives them tangible form.
Bento was a laureate of Europan 16 and, together with Vinciane Despret as curator of the Belgian Pavilion at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, realised a project constructed from materials sourced within the Brussels region: rammed earth from excavation sites in Brussels, solid timber from the Sonian Forest, and mycelium panels grown in the cellars of Tour & Taxis.
Programme
20:00h – Welcome
20:10h – Marco Poletto (ecoLogicStudio) in conversation with Corentin Dalon (Bento Architecture)
21:15h – Q&A
21:30h – Drinks and visit to the exhibition
(The programme will be conducted in English.)
Exhibition
Architecture has contributed both to the destruction and the preservation of bacteria. Many modern-day diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, allergies, autism, Alzheimer’s and depression, are linked to a loss of microbial diversity.
We The Bacteria highlights the important role of architecture in this narrative. Curators Beatriz Colomina (Architectural Historian and Professor, Princeton University) and Mark Wigley (Professor of Architecture, Columbia University) explore the ‘diseases of the built environment’, which are inextricably linked to the health of the planet and the state of the biosphere. The exhibition advocates a different view of humanity: as a mobile ecosystem that embraces the world of bacteria. We The Bacteria holds a mirror up to us all.
15.10.2026 at 20:00h
Music Studio
DE SINGEL, Antwerp
The programme will be conducted in English.
Free admission. Prior online registration required.
Visit the exhibition from 19:00h onwards. Free of admission for holders of tickets to the talk.
30.09.2026 - 31.01.2027
DE SINGEL
Desguinlei 25
2018 Antwerp
An exhibition by Triennale Milano, presented by the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi) and DE SINGEL.
Government of Flanders
The main address of the Flanders Architecture Institute is located in De Singel International Arts Campus, next to the R1. From the main entrance on the Desguinlei follow the signs to Beel Laag (± 3 minutes on foot).
There are spaces reserved for wheelchair users in all halls of DE SINGEL. Please contact us in advance at tickets@desingel.be so that we can reserve a space for you. You can use an elevator to reach the halls. Enter through the main entrance of DE SINGEL and make your way down the ramp to the left of the stairs to take the lift. Read more about the accessibility
You can store your coat, handbag or backpack in the free lockers available at DE SINGEL. These are located in two places: in the locker area under the stairs at the main entrance via Desguinlei, and at the Theatre Square in Beel Laag. Instructions on how to use the lockers can be found on the side of the locker column.
