(Above) A frame from a video by Influx_Studio shows the top floors of Marina City re-imagined with wind turbines and algae to absorb carbon dioxide. (Click on image to view larger version.)

April 24, 2012 – The proposal submitted last December by two French architects to retrofit Marina City has won the top prize in the 2011 International Algae Competition, a global challenge to design algae food and energy systems.

Mario Caceres and Christian Canonico won the Algae Abundance Grand Prize for best video, along with $3,000. Their design firm, Influx_Studio of Paris, was among seven winners announced on April 12 at the Algae Technology Platform Conference in San Diego.

A six-minute video shows how their proposal would help meet a goal by the Chicago Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from levels in 1990. With buildings, particularly older ones, accounting for 70 percent of emissions in urban areas, the answer say Caceres and Canonico, is algae, a source of energy and food and a carbon dioxide absorber.

Caceres says representatives of industrial companies in the U.S. have expressed interest in their project.

Many of the entries will be featured in a full-color book, Our Algae Future, which will be available soon on Amazon.com, according to contest organizers.

• Watch video: The Green Loop: Marina City Algae Retrofitting
• More info: International Algae Competition
• Related story: Use algae to absorb Loop gas, urge French architects