On Display: Weird Science Meets Design

On Display: Weird Science Meets Design

I am no numbers cruncher, however together with the planet’s population projected to rise nearly 30%, to 9.1 million people, in 25 years, I do have a few burning questions. Like, will there be enough world to go about? How much can we reasonably inquire of this earth we walk on? How will people create, construct and reside with limited and worried resources?

While a lot of us are totally familiar with green building and eco friendly materials, such as reclaimed timber, bamboo and denim insulation, what I am about to show you’re much, much stranger. The future is nigh; as proof, I bring you the current exhibition at The New Institute in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

thenewinstitute.nl

In Biodesign: On the Cross-Pollination of Nature, Science and Creativity (September 25, 2013, to January 5, 2014), you are able to learn about sneakers made from germs, fabrics of sugarcane, and floors of snail poop.

While many jobs are Profession or prototypes, others are actual. By way of instance, a few companies have begun mailing and packaging products together with mushroom insulating material, including Crate & Barrel and Dell. And if you haven’t yet seen the Half-Life lamp, powered not by electricity but by hamster cells, then you can read about that in this ideabook.

Curator William Myers selected jobs that illustrate how living systems are now aiding in architecture and design. In addition, he chosen the more far-out to be fascinating about what new technologies would mean to our lives.

terreform.org

7 Futuristic Nature-Meets-Design Concepts
1. The Fab Tree Hab


The notion:
Houses that are grown instead of built. Yes, it might take seven years, based on weather conditions. But let us assume then start-up phase, we’d just go from tree to tree.

Eco cred:No harm to the surroundings. We become part of it, rather than the other way round. Homes use living trees nevertheless incorporated in their ecosystems. Your home would be grafted in to shape, and branches would be trained to be woven together to form archways, lattices and displays through an early process called pleaching. Is anybody else considering Avatar‘s Pandora individuals?

Head Supporting the design: Terreform One

thenewinstitute.nl

2. Precycled Modular Bioreactor

The notion: Eco pods that can be interlocked and robotically moved. They’d include algae or productive gardens.

Eco cred: Algae produce biofuel. Why don’t you use space to produce what we need (including edibles)? The pods incorporate energy production and architecture.

Minds behind the design: Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Squared Design Lab

thenewinstitute.nl

3. Three Invincible Cities

The notion: Welcome to Sandra, Crystalia and Arachnia, three speculative cities where structures are built in sand, crystals and silk.

Eco cred: These towns could be built by harnessing the abilities of bacteria present in their ecosystems. From the Sahara Desert, the creatives behind this job are attempting to use a bacterium in the sand to do construction; it would obviously convert dunes into sandstone.

Minds behind the design: Ordinary Ltd., Magnus Larsson and Alex Kaiser, who have been motivated by Le città invisibili (translation: “invisible cities”), a novel by Italian author Italo Calvino.

driversofchange.com

4. The Living Urban Building

The notion:A skyscraper using beaucoup du overpowering amenities! Flooring dedicated to growing food for renters; a construction powered by algae and wind; incorporated transportation hubs. Structures and modular elements can be upgraded and regularly replaced with robots. The homeowner’s association is likely nothing to sneeze at.

Eco cred: This smart construction can respond to the local environment and to the occupants’ needs. By way of instance, food is increased dependent on what renters eat. The building also offers a skin that responds to climate changes and transforms carbon dioxide to oxygen. “It nearly acts as a synthetic and highly sensitive nervous system,” says international engineering firm Arup. Or in two keywords: It’s alive!

Head Supporting the design: Foresight + Innovation, a think tank for Arup

thenewinstitute.nl

5. The Moss Table

The prototype: The table, which has its own Facebook webpage, is no ordinary table. It comprises pots of moss with a glass panel. Pretty, right?

Eco cred:That table may power household appliances one day. The soil in the pots includes charged particles (created with a biological process involving photosynthesis and germs gnawing on dirt particles). These particles can then be channeled to an electric current.

Minds behind the design:Carlos Peralta and Alex Driver (artists shown) and Paolo Bombelli (science)

thenewinstitute.nl

Imagine it right alongside a Mies van der Rohe Krefeld sofa.

thenewinstitute.nl

6. Snails

The prototype: Textiles and floors made from snail excrement. From the photograph you are taking a look at a garden snail eating newspaper and leaving a trail of colored poop in its aftermath.

Eco cred:The coloured feces is malleable. After it’s pressed, blended and floor, snail excrement can be pressed into a mould and used to craft decorative tiles and ribbons — maybe even floors.

Head Supporting the design: Maybe designer Lieske Schreuder. Maybe the snails.

thenewinstitute.nl

7. Biocouture Atelier

The notion: A shoe increased, not made.

Eco cred: Since these shoes are increased, they are fully compostable. The material, a germs by-product, may be molded when moist onto a 3-D type to make dresses or shoes. When dry it can be cut and sewn into a garment. It seems like vegetable leather (fake leather made from cotton waste).

Head Supporting the design: Suzanne Lee

thenewinstitute.nl

8. Biolace

The notion: A bioengineered imaginary plant with origins of lace.

Eco cred: A multipurpose plant that grows materials quickly and naturally. Consider the farmed fish you purchase at the grocery store, a theory that conserves wild fish. This is farmed fabric. These newly created synthetic plant species could grow textiles and new types of delicious herbs and foods. By way of instance, Basil 5 could be designed to be a culinary herb in addition to an antiviral medicine. Its origins would also be lace lace. Strawberry Noir would create black lace in addition to black strawberries with improved amounts of vitamin C and antioxidants.

Head Supporting the design: Carole Collet

thenewinstitute.nl

Missions Total: You May Visit These!

1. Root Bridges of Meghalaya

It’s actual:A collaboration between nature and village architects has been going on for quite some time. In Northeast India, among the wettest places on Earth (470 inches of rain yearly), trees are trained to form bridges. It’s widely believed that this process, which continues today, started in the 1500s. People use them to cross the swelling rivers.

Eco cred: The trees are living, just trained to form bridges. This idea uses nature without killing nature.

Minds behind the design: The Khasi tribe

thenewinstitute.nl

2. Solaris

It’s real: an extremely green 15-story multiuse construction in Singapore. Equal parts people and vegetation.

thenewinstitute.nl

Eco cred: It’s restoring neighboring nature. The previously vacant site was devastated, with little topsoil, fauna or flora. Instead of just building another multiuse high tech, the architects included life with heavily planted facades plus spiraled terraces and rooftops full of greenery. Birds and bugs have returned.

thenewinstitute.nl

If just the buildings in the space had thought of this strategy to attract more greenery back to urban life.

Head Supporting the design: T.R. Hamzah & Yeang

thenewinstitute.nl

3. Bioreactor Facade

It’s actual:A windowpane of microalgae. It’s part of a five-story residential structure, BIQ, in Hamburg, Germany.

Eco cred: The algae construction creates its own electricity. This plant also gives BIQ its distinguishing colour and provides colour, warmth and noise absorption.

Head Supporting the design: SSC Strategic Science Consult

thenewinstitute.nl

This exhibit has opened my eyes to the energy of microorganisms and the mysteries of nature. Every discovery seems more stupendous than another.

Inform us Can you reside in a home you climbed? Can you think nature is going to be a good collaborator? Will people be? Share your ideas in the Comments section below.

Info: Biodesign: On Cross-Pollination of Nature, Science and Creativity, September 25, 2013, through January 5, 2014, The New Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

See related