The Exhale Chandelier

How incredibly exciting to have the world’s first living and breathing chandelier on display at the V&A Museum for the London Design Festival. The chandelier called Exhale features transparent glass petals which contain live green algae. These micro-organisms use the basic principles of photosynthesis to take carbon dioxide out of the air and convert it to oxygen, turning the chandelier into a large air-purifier, powered by nature.

Exhale was created by Julian Melchiorri  a design-engineer, biotechnologist and CEO of Arborea based in London. The mission of Arborea is to solve resource scarcity and global warming on a massive scale, by harnessing the oldest and most important chemical process on earth, photosynthesis.  A process Melchiorri believes can be used in both products and architecture.
For his work on the Exhale Chandelier Melchiorri won the 2017 London Design Festival Emerging Talent Medal.

As a fan of Bio-mimicry myself, it is great to see the development in this area. Nature is so clever, it makes sense to learn from it and work in harmony with it.

At a time where global carbon emissions and urbanization are growing exponentially, it is inspiring and comforting to see designers using technologies, art and design to create eco-products and materials that not only have a positive impact on our environment, but look beautiful too.

The future looks exciting, hope you have an inspired week.