Category: Initiatives

Microscopic beings at the helm of a revolution

Posted on by eki

BROMALGAE

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Text: Christine Holmes Photos: Mito & Pierre Leibar
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Microscopic beings at the helm of a revolution

Until a few decades ago, Barakaldo was the beating heart of heavy industries when the Biscayan blast furnaces were producing iron and steel. A real springboard for the Basque economy, this activity unfortunately caused very high levels of pollution. With the passage of time and the decline of the industry, Bilbao and the surrounding area have undergone considerable transformations, with the emergence of new environmental policies and sustainable development projects.

Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, founded in 1902 in Barakaldo.

So the green revolution currently taking place in the Basque Country does not stem solely from its forests and its agriculture. Tiny marine organisms, microalgae, are paving the way towards a more sustainable future. This is the challenge taken up by the innovative company Bromalgae: to use the power of microalgae to address major environmental issues such as reducing air pollution, absorbing carbon dioxide and promoting renewable energy.

Microalgae, the green gold of the sea
These small but powerful microalgae are sometimes compared to “superplants” because of their incredible ecological capacities. In addition to their exceptional capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, microalgae multiply at an impressive rate, doubling or even tripling every day! All these characteristics make them interesting and productive allies for industry, food and energy production.

By using the natural process that oxygenates the planet, Bromalgae has developed technology made possible by microalgae to reduce pollution and purify the air. To enable us to breathe healthier air in our polluted cities, the company has created innovative algae trees. This system, called GarbiAir, uses microalgae to capture gases such as CO₂ and NOx (nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide). Initial experiments carried out in Barakaldo and Bayonne are more than promising, as they have revealed a 30% to 40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and a 70% reduction in nitrogen oxides. So we may well see these new kinds of trees blossoming in our streets in the not-too-distant future.

But pollution issues go well beyond this scale. Large industries emit quantities of gases that are very harmful to the environment. Here again, microalgae have their say. Thanks to ingenious systems installed in factories, the GarbiNox system filters the air, absorbing toxic gases and expelling purer air. This technology not only preserves the environment, but also helps companies comply with the strictest regulations in this field.

Microalgae have many other strings to their bow. To be able to study them in the best possible way and to derive maximum benefit from them, Bromalgae has embarked on the production of microalgae on an industrial scale, as part of the Valga project. Microalgae could thus be applied to agriculture, waste management, health and even cosmetics.

Bromalgae proves that a city or region, even one with a history of pollution, can reinvent itself to become a major player in environmental protection. It also demonstrates that microalgae offer concrete and effective solutions to major ecological challenges.

However, many obstacles remain before these revolutionary technologies can become a reality on a large scale. In addition to scaling up production to an industrial level, it is essential to raise awareness and disseminate the benefits of microalgae, to raise citizens’ awareness and push companies towards sustainable alternatives. Public policies must act in the same direction, placing air quality and environmental protection at the heart of their priorities.

Microalgae, a promise for the future
Bromalgae proves that a greener and more sustainable future is achieved through the combination of innovative technologies and the power of nature. Microalgae are not a miracle solution but a real opportunity offered by science and engineering to reduce pollution and preserve the environment.

The work done by Bromalgae in the Basque Country shows the world that these microscopic marine organisms can have a huge impact on the health of our planet. Although the potential of microalgae is still largely untapped, they are just waiting in the wings. Technology, awareness and regulation are the three essential pillars that will enable their potential to flourish and develop.

This book is an ode to the beauty of nature

Posted on by eki

This book is an ode to the beauty of nature

Text: Christine Holmes Photos: Lur Garden
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Iñigo Segurola’s book Lur Garden looks back at the genesis of his “garden of gardens” that he has been shaping for ten years in the Oiartzun valley.

But since a garden is nothing without its gardener, the Basque landscape designer also reveals a lot about himself. It is the story of a man in search of order and beauty in the heart of a free and indomitable nature.

As a child, Iñigo Segurola was one of those children who picked flowers on every school outing. He used to say that when he grew up, he would write “books about trees”. Already passionate about plants, he tells how moved he was when, in science class, the seeds he had placed in damp cotton finally germinated.

Fifty years later, he has created a garden that is unique in the Basque Country, an “oddity” in the local landscape. Above all, he has published Lur Garden, the “book about trees” he had dreamed of.

“I always say that this garden was like adopting quintuplets: when one sleeps, the other cries, another becomes uncontrollable, and so on,” – Iñigo Segurola

Lur Garden, the 10-year genesis of a book
Lur Garden is a collection of 16 themed gardens; a “garden of gardens” spread over two hectares in the heart of a small valley in Oiartzun. Some would say it is the Garden of Eden. However, when Iñigo Segurola and his partner Juan Iriarte found this land ten years ago, it was just a meadow where a few cows grazed, bordered by the Sarobe stream.

At the head of Lur Paisajistak since 1994, the visionary landscape architects of Gipuzkoa fell in love with the place and decided to acquire it in order to experiment with their art without constraints.

As the pages turn, Segurola reveals the stages of the project. We learn that the idea of creating a succession of round, rather than straight-lined, gardens emerged from Juan Iriarte’s sketch of a fried egg. Inspired by metal rings found on the site, Iriarte sketched a garden conceived not as an extension of a building, but as islands in the middle of nature.

The photographs, by Segurola himself and by Clair Takacs, Marta Etxebarria and Unai Bellami, offer a visual journey through these contrasting spaces. We meander from the garden of mirrors, soberly organised around a stretch of water devoid of aquatic plants, to the multi-coloured and luxuriant garden of extravagance.

Segurola opens the doors to his inner garden
Lur Garden is organised in two parts: the gardener and then the garden. For Segurola, the relationship between the two is visceral. “I always say that this garden was like adopting quintuplets: when one sleeps, the other cries, another becomes uncontrollable, and so on,” he says. The first eight years of this creation were like an obsessive relationship, in which he admits to having forgotten himself to the point of “hitting rock bottom”. He compares the garden to a child forever dependent on its parent.

Only yoga and meditation freed him from this interdependence and enabled him to rebuild himself. Rather than a Creator, he then took the place of an Observer in these gardens full of plants and animals, which in the end were not so dependent on him.

You can buy the book here!

Owantshoozi, Create or die!

Posted on by joseba

OWANTSHOOZI

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Text: Christine Holmes Photos: Mito & Pierre Leibar
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Just as manure helps roses grow, remarkable treasures can sprout from the most unlikely waste materials. But it takes a sharp eye and Owantshoozi’s know-how to spot them and reveal their potential.

After their studies (Master’s at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne for her, Bachelor’s with the Melkweg Award at Eindhoven Design Academy for him), the brother and sister decided to create their brand.

When the time came to give the brand a name, they leafed through the Basque dictionary from A to Z and, surprised at not finding a name that struck the right note, Ddiddue exclaimed “Owantshoozi!” They need look no further! This exclamation was now the name of the family brand.
And this name fits them like a glove as surprise is the very essence of Owantshoozi. It’s the kind of surprise they like to unleash on others, but above all it’s the kind of surprise they seek to bring to life, again and again, in their creative process.

Indeed, Juana and Ddiddue are big kids with a mischievous eye: the children of a father who was a champion of culture and a mother who loved fashion; the grandchildren of a grandmother, who ran a grocery shop in what is now their current workshop in Ordiarp; but also the children of Soule, the wildest province in the Basque Country – in the best sense of the word, of course.
Far be it from them to indulge in unfathomable, folkloristic Basque mythology. These two are deeply rooted in modernity. Nevertheless mythology is firmly anchored in their soul, like the tattoo they sew onto the skin of Kautera, a character from the Souletin masquerade, giving the Basque tradition a pop-culture makeover.

At the mercy of materials
Juana and Ddiddue have not established any hierarchy of materials. For them, rubber is no less valuable than gold or silver, no better than stone. Because value comes not from the materials themselves, but from the way we look at them. As genies of the lamp, they grant the wish of the rubber boot that dreamed of becoming a cap, the parachute canvas that wanted to be a handbag or the public transport floor tile that already saw itself at the top of the shrub, as a birdhouse.
Both the meticulous artisans roll up their sleeves to make needles and scissors dance: they do everything themselves, from the design to the needlework, from collecting the scraps to putting the finished items in the shop.

Ddiddue and Juana swim against the tide of consumerism and disposability. They’re ready to save anything they can get their hands on to give it a second life. Like Mary Poppins and her bag of tricks, they manage to squeeze a boot, tractor inner tube and parachute canvas into a single cap.

Robust levity
Juana and Ddiddue are not reluctant when it comes to racking their brains and having a good laugh. In their opinion, true wisdom consists in nurturing one’s madness. Their latest creation is clear evidence of this. The four cushions, created with delicate stitching, illustrate the four elements through an endless thread that outlines fine, intricate designs on recovered canvas. But the attentive observer will notice that the wind is represented by flatulence and water by an ample and abundantly squirting femme fontaine.

This humorous audacity, which adds an extra dimension to Owantshoozi’s work, also highlights Juana and Ddiddue’s humility: their creations never seek to provide answers but rather to raise new questions.

And they don’t see the customer as a passive recipient of finished objects.
For example, their birdhouses, made from public transport floor tiles, are designed as jigsaw puzzles that anyone can assemble at home, without nails or screws. In this way, these generous designers choose to share the thrill of the creative process with the buyer.

Decorated accessories
If they could have told their grandmother that hats and accessories created in her old grocery shop would win them Chanel and Hermès awards, she would probably have found it hard to believe (would she have exclaimed ‘owantshoozi!’?). Yes indeed! Distinctions are flying thick and fast for Juana and Ddiddue. But they don’t have time to let this fame go to their heads. True to their nature as hard-working and tireless artisans, they got back to work without missing a beat.

Away from the spotlight, they have used these awards to nurture their creativity, working with Chanel workshops, discovering new machines and even equipping themselves with them, so that they can work again, work always, work better, without ever getting bored.

Because, as they say, “Sorkuntza ala hil!” (Create or die!).