Seaweed Pavilion: Biomaterial-Based Tensegrity Structure

As the construction sector advances toward Net Zero, embodied carbon from materials and construction is increasingly pivotal, as most emissions occur at project outset. This paper investigates seaweed as a low-carbon, renewable biomaterial with rapid renewability, wide availability, and very low mass. Currently, it has little architectural deployment beyond processed insulation. We present the Seaweed Pavilion, an experimental prototype that integrates seaweed within a tensegrity structural system to create an ultra-lightweight, demountable, and easily transported framework. Designed collaboratively by students and academics from the UK, Japan, and Italy, the pavilion was developed and fabricated in Japan, then shipped to Venice for exhibition via standard postal services, demonstrating the practicality of its low-mass construction. To our knowledge, this is the first documented use of seaweed in a tensegrity system. The resulting grid provides a replicable, scalable method for rapid, low-carbon assembly, and temporary placemaking. Developed under the DELIGHT Group’s mission to create dismountable, mobile pavilions for urban activation, the project positions biomaterials (specifically seaweed) as credible contributors to reducing embodied carbon across the built environment.