The Metabolic Home at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025

The Metabolic Home is a zero-waste housing prototype that redefines circular living in dense cities through the cohabitation of humans, more-than-human species and machines. Developed by Areti Markopoulou, Academic Director at IAAC, and Lydia Kallipoliti from Columbia GSAPP, in collaboration with Post-Spectacular Office, the project was presented at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Carlo Ratti, within the Central Pavilion at the Arsenale

The prototype features ten interconnected domestic spaces—kitchen, toilet, lounge, bedroom, laundry, storage, garage, garden, balcony, and lightwell—each demonstrating how metabolic processes intertwine with everyday domestic life. Waste from one space becomes a resource for another: kitchen greywater and organic waste feed hydroponic gardens, while AI regulates the laundry’s microclimate, directing moist air through the lightwell, which also hosts domestic mycelium cultivation.

Household objects of the Metabolic Home are produced using outputs from human and non-human activity. Kitchen furniture is made from biochar bricks derived from organic waste; a pollinator wall on the balcony is constructed from mycelium blocks harvested from the lightwell; bedroom elements emerge through crystallization and biomineralization processes; and the garage generates biofuel from decomposed food waste.

Developed from the research of Markopoulou and Kallipoliti, and informed by material science, synthetic biology, and chemical engineering, the prototype presents a tangible model for embedding metabolic cycles into architectural design and urban living.

Faculty-led innovation with global visibility

The Metabolic Home reflects the kind of architectural thinking that defines IAAC—experimental, interdisciplinary, and deeply engaged with real-world transformation.

Co-Led by Areti Markopoulou, IAAC’s Academic Director and Director of the Master in Advanced Architecture, the project demonstrates how faculty-led research at IAAC translates into design innovation with international resonance. It is also a clear example of how the Institute’s academic community is shaping the discourse on architecture’s role in building regenerative futures.

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