Charlotte’s Kyoung Hee Kim’s Class Is Cultivating Algae For Environmentally Sustainable Concrete
Algae blooms are hampering water activities at Lake Norman and across the country.
But not all algae is toxic, and UNC Charlotte faculty and students are researching ways to put algae to good use.
In Professor of Architecture Kyoung Hee Kim‘s class this past spring, 16 students cultivated algae called chlorella in containers along the second-floor windows of Storrs. In April, they harvested the algae and used it to make environmentally sustainable concrete.
Each student then cast the algae concrete in a decorative mold of their own design.
Why would anyone want to make concrete out of algae?
Well, traditional concrete, which includes portland cement in its mixture, is terrible for the environment, generating an astonishing amount of greenhouse gases when it’s produced.
Algae concrete is a carbon-neutral, and even potentially carbon-negative, product.
This concrete research is just one of the ways that Dr. Kim and architecture students are exploring how algae can be a part of sustainable building solutions. Kim’s latest iteration of a window system that contains living algae is currently installed and undergoing testing at the Innovation Barn near uptown Charlotte.