At the Lisbon Biennial, the Portuguese practice Extrastudio is asking us to reflect on the increasingly fine line between urban space and nature via an innovatory material: organic concrete. Exploiting concrete’s intrinsic ability to hold humidity, casting a gaze at the cracks in our cities and perhaps having read Marcovaldo, Extrastudio is proposing the application of organic concrete as a living surface in urban public spaces.

Seeds and soil are incorporated directly into the slabs so as to collect water and allow plants to grow; and two layers of metal mesh are sunk into the concrete to make it stronger. The designers are only suggesting horizontal use for the moment but they are working on a vertical version of their invention. M.P.

https://www.extrastudio.pt

Organic concrete: technical data 
The material consists in a reinforced concrete slab with turf incorporated in a percentage ranging from 10% to 30% in order to obtain a more dispersed or a denser pattern, uncompromising its mechanical resistance. In section the concrete is interrupted by parts of pre-compressed turf reaching both sides of a 30-50 mm slab, allowing the root system of plants to connect to the ground.
Credits
e-studio (project team: João Ferrão, João Costa, Ribeiro Sónia Oliveira, Anu Lassila Sónia Caldeira, Inês Bordado)
Client: Experimentadesign
Project: 2005
1st phase prototypes: e-studio
2nd phase prototypes and production: Constromat, lda
Photography: Jose Pedro Tomaz