The ARC (Algae Research Centre) Part 1 Project 2020 Will Pike University of Reading | UK The Algae Research Centre is born out of the ever-increasing need for the reversal of our reliance on unsustainable products and consumer behaviours. The scheme brings together an inventive, resilient and motivated group of people to create a pioneering community. As a community they explore and research new ways of living, creating an integrated cycle of product creation and regeneration on site. The main driving resource behind the ARC is algae, manifesting both a physical presence growing in lake on which the community resides and as the resource acting as the backbone for all enterprises undertaken by the community. Algae is cultivated and harvested for the Centre’s investigation into algae based fertiliser, 3D-printable filaments and injection-moulded bio-plastics. In the short term, the centre is focused on low-cost, low-impact, biodegradable domestic products, prototypes of which are tested and refined within the community before going to market. In the longer term, the ARC aims to rapidly scale up the technology to create the world’s first algae housing prototype. This aims to expand the capability of the site and take this technology to similar communities around the world to further continue the use of algae to combat the degradation of the planet. Will Pike Tutor(s) Negin Ghorbani