Despite being scary and medical and reminding me of hospitals, this picture is still kind of beautiful. It has a weird under-the-sea vibe, I think. Or maybe it’s the hues (green and gold is maybe the prettiest pairing of colors). Can we make up a genre? Luminescent scifi? Life support chic?

Anyway, much more importantly, this is a picture of a garden.

Wait, what?

The picture was taken at the Architectural Association in London. It shows a new exhibit by Claudia Pasquero and Marc Poletto (who both work at the London-based design studio EcoLogic) titled H.O.R.T.U.S. You know what that’s short for? Hydro Organism Responsive to Urban Stimuli.

It really does sound like something out of a Octavia Butler novel, but this shit is real. The garden above is part of a sci-fi “greenhouse” containing hundreds of photobioreactor bags that house nine different species of algae.
Visitors to the exhibit are invited to blow into the tubes, which dangle alarmingly from the ceiling. Their exhalation helps grow the algae, so each visit promotes further “growth” of this hyper-modern garden.

Though I generally don’t like design that is futuristic for the sake of being futuristic (über-sleek cars are a turn off for this girl), I think the garden is pretty amazing. You can read more about it on the {redundantly named) Architectural Association School of Architecture‘s website or see more images at Architizer.

{via NotCot}