Regenerative Urban Arcology
An attempt to reconnect people in the city with nature and the process of growing our own food while adopting alternative sustainable construction methods through a modular mycelium approach.
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Growing Homes
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Intersecting Geo-Dome Arcology
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The Willow Collective
Regenerative urban Arcology, hosting life, work and leisure, inspired by willow rod research and testing
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No Dig for Victory
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Bio-Tea Room
SCOBY Bio-Leather as an alternative to single use plastics.
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BIO-bubble
Modular Inflatable Air Purifying Structure
BIO-bubble is a modular, inflatable, air purifying structure. It comprises of recycled, 3D printed bio-plastic tubes, with ETFE pillows cushioned between. The tubes act as microalgae bio-reactors, which are encased within a second tube which keeps air circulating to the recycled ETFE cushions.
Majority of the structure is air, water, and air-purifying microalgae, creating an efficient, ecological bio structure.
The structure comprises of inter-connecting modules which can have different functions. They can act as an inflatable structure that people can walk through, and kids can play inside. The modules can also act as a greenhouse, with the dark, water-filled base acting as a heat sink. The heat stored during the day from solar energy is released at night to maintain a warm environment for the plants within.
It is a showcase for sustainable novel design solutions, which is accessible to public.
Because the structure is so lightweight, it can be assembled easily in any location, allowing different local communities to interact with it. The lightness of the structure means it has a low in embodied carbon and minimizes emissions associated with transportation, installation and dismantling. It can also be scaled up or down.
The microalgae growing within the structure can be harvested to be used for various bio-materials or bio-fuel.
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BioBreathe
The project ‘BioBreathe’ proposes an innovative way to integrate biogas technology into mobile architecture, in order to encourage the use of renewable energy in households and educate the public about waste removal alternatives. The biomachine consists of curved wood panels with detailed cuts acting as skin, which will move along with the naturally contracting and expanding movements of anaerobic digestion, simulating the chest movement of breath in and out. It functions as a portable unit which can be assembled anywhere to transform waste collected into energy.
Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally, in the absence of oxygen, as bacteria break down organic materials and produce biogas. The process reduces the amount of material and produces biogas effectively, which can be used as an energy source. It is relatively cheap compared to other sustainable energy and easy to set up even in domestic settings. A household biogas plant is approximately 1000 pounds which can provide adequate daily cooking gas and fertilizers to a family. With simple operation and distinct output, it will surely increase awareness of the novel sustainable solutions.
The expandable skin is first experimented with paper models, then tested on thin plywood sheets in the fabrication lab at school. Being a postgraduate student in the University of Westminster, it will be a precious experience to build and publicize my own design. It will be a showcase for sustainable architecture that gathers talented design students to join the team of fabricating the structure.
The machine is initiated by inserting waste into the digester , gas created will go through a gas pressure mechanism and active filter, then released by a gas pipe to provide energy for a burning flame. The wood skin follows the movement of the gas holder, expanding when more gas is collected, vice versa. The structure is scalable, which can be developed into a larger plant to provide energy for communities.
To increase engagement of the community, BioBreathe is proposed to be built at the Old Oak Common Railway Station, which will offer unrivalled connectivity to the high speed two railway. The expected high flow of circulation will furthermore promote the project and impact the society.
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Ostra Aquaponics
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SCOBY FAB-TORY
In order to tackle the use of single use plastics in the UK this project will use waste consumables to produce bio-degradable alternatives to single use plastics.
SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) is a bio-fabric and by-product of Kombucha Tea. SCOBY Fab-tory manufactures this bio-fabric, using it to creates food packaging, SCOBY based insulation and rolls of raw membranes using food waste.
The project is situated in York Way, making use of wasted space above the train tracks just north of Kings Cross, St. Pancras Stations.
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Terra – Reef
Located directly North of Kings Cross Station, this project follows a set of design principles aiming to tackle global warning and greenhouse gas emissions namely carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
Terra – Reef aims to focus on the intrinsic relationships between communities and architecture by introducing a sustainable bio-receptive terracotta system to improve the local pollution and quality of health of the community.
The bio-receptive qualities of terracotta allow Moss and Lichen to proliferate on the surface of the material, supporting their growth over time. The moss inhabited structure will passively absorb PM2.5 from the adjacent trains and capture CO2 from the atmosphere.
In order to tackle rising UK and global fertiliser prices the programmes within this project actively remove Nitrous Oxide from the atmosphere and convert it into ammonia fertiliser to support the vertical farming harvest and boost the socio-economic output of the architecture and the local community.
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Terra – 3D Printed Eco Village
TERRA gets it’s name from the raw earth that is used as the
main building material to 3D print the housing modules. As the brief was about archologies, I set out to bring the self-sufficient, countryside lifestyle into East London. The eco village consists of four 10-storey high communities which each are centred around a digester which reuses the waste to create the power on site as well as bio-gas for fuel. Each housing unit has it’s own greenhouse made from 3d printed bioplastic surrounding their home to grown their own food and there are also external allotments and composting facilities on site.
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Carbonquest
My project seeks to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with a novel direct air capture technology which captures the carbon dioxide with hydroxides. The carbonates are then heated with renewable solar concentrated power to release pure carbon dioxide which is pumped into greenhouses of crops or beds of azolla fern (one of the world’s fastest biomass-producing plants which absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide). The azolla is used on this city farm as biofertilizer, a feedstock for animals and as a human superfood. The produce grown in the greenhouses will be sold at the local food market on-site or used in stalls preparing fresh healthy meals to be consumed in the community food hall.
In terms of geometry, this project explores biomimicry by taking the rhombic dodecahedron lattice from the efficient honeycomb structure to aggregate the hexagonal structure. As the project site is utilising the space above the railway tracks, the design is parametrically driven so that the lattice can flow along the railway lines and the geometry can be adapted to any tracks in London.
The lattice design and carbon sequestration come together to create Carbonquest which is a carbon negative city farm with food halls and markets.
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2022 – 2023 BRIEF
We are back for our 10th year anniversary as DS10! Very happy to share our brief this year: ECO PARAMETRIC ARCHITECTURE: CIRCULAR DESIGN & FABRICATION which includes Artificial Intelligence, biophilic design and refurbishment of derelict building.
LINK TO TO OUR A4 INTRODUCTION
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1 Prompt 40 variations- MidJourney
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AI to Object
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BIOCITY
A number of 6.6 million tonnes of food waste is recorded in the UK every year, which equals to 3 quarters of the total food consumption. The current food waste collection system is inadequate and limited. Therefore, my design is serving as a solution to London’s food waste problem. The project BioCity, involves the use of biogas technology in a residential community, collecting food waste and manure from the residents, converting them into energy such as cooking and vehicle fuels that are sufficient to supply the whole housing and benefit nearby communities as well. The self contained residential hub is proposed over the high speed 2 train tracks at the Old Oak Common railway station, to cope with the increasing housing needs in the area. The cocoon-shaped housing units are arranged in a hexagonal grid, then array in relation to different sets of grid line identified in the railway tracks, creating a continuous pathway that circulates around the site. As a modern residential hub, BioCity proposes live-work housing units in various sizes to cope with the lasting impact of the pandemic on working styles. The flexibility of glulam timber is explored in the proposal, along with the use of rubber sheets, bringing in the nature of biogas into the dynamic façade system. The use of rubber pillow façade units can provide shading and insulation by filling air in between the rubber layers.
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Ecopod – A.I. Meets Architecture
To explore the intersection of artificial
intelligence and architecture, I’m using tools
such as Midjourney to generate A.I. powered
architectural prototypes. These prototypes
are expanded into parametric models using
Grasshopper3D, allowing me to create novel
and inhabited spaces that integrate living
elements such as plants, trees, and soils. Our
focus this year is on using A.I. in the design process and
linking it to specific industrial manufacturing
techniques such as CNC.
Imagine Airbnb and WeWork combined. You get
to own or rent an existing private pod as a space
to work in. This structure is fully off-grid, sustainably
heated and cooled using heat pumps which
extract water from the canal. Ecopods are located near canals as
their primary source of energy production uses
the canal water. It also comes with a good view.
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BioBreathe
The project ‘BioBreathe’ proposes an innovative way to integrate biogas technology into mobile architecture, in order to encourage the use of renewable energy in households and educate the public about waste removal alternatives. The biomachine consists of curved wood panels with detailed cuts acting as skin, which will move along with the naturally contracting and expanding movements of anaerobic digestion, simulating the chest movement of breath in and out. It functions as a portable unit which can be assembled anywhere to transform waste collected into energy.
Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally, in the absence of oxygen, as bacteria break down organic materials and produce biogas. The process reduces the amount of material and produces biogas effectively, which can be used as an energy source. It is relatively cheap compared to other sustainable energy and easy to set up even in domestic settings. A household biogas plant is approximately 1000 pounds which can provide adequate daily cooking gas and fertilizers to a family. With simple operation and distinct output, it will surely increase awareness of the novel sustainable solutions.
The expandable skin is first experimented with paper models, then tested on thin plywood sheets in the fabrication lab at school. Being a postgraduate student in the University of Westminster, it will be a precious experience to build and publicize my own design. It will be a showcase for sustainable architecture that gathers talented design students to join the team of fabricating the structure.
The machine is initiated by inserting waste into the digester , gas created will go through a gas pressure mechanism and active filter, then released by a gas pipe to provide energy for a burning flame. The wood skin follows the movement of the gas holder, expanding when more gas is collected, vice versa. The structure is scalable, which can be developed into a larger plant to provide energy for communities.
To increase engagement of the community, BioBreathe is proposed to be built at the Old Oak Common Railway Station, which will offer unrivalled connectivity to the high speed two railway. The expected high flow of circulation will furthermore promote the project and impact the society.
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BIOCITY
A number of 6.6 million tonnes of food waste is recorded in the UK every year, which equals to 3 quarters of the total food consumption. The current food waste collection system is inadequate and limited. Therefore, my design is serving as a solution to London’s food waste problem. The project BioCity, involves the use of biogas technology in a residential community, collecting food waste and manure from the residents, converting them into energy such as cooking and vehicle fuels that are sufficient to supply the whole housing and benefit nearby communities as well. The self contained residential hub is proposed over the high speed 2 train tracks at the Old Oak Common railway station, to cope with the increasing housing needs in the area. The cocoon-shaped housing units are arranged in a hexagonal grid, then array in relation to different sets of grid line identified in the railway tracks, creating a continuous pathway that circulates around the site. As a modern residential hub, BioCity proposes live-work housing units in various sizes to cope with the lasting impact of the pandemic on working styles. The flexibility of glulam timber is explored in the proposal, along with the use of rubber sheets, bringing in the nature of biogas into the dynamic façade system. The use of rubber pillow façade units can provide shading and insulation by filling air in between the rubber layers.
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Subscription Living in Modular Architecture – Derelict London
In Brief01 proposal a series of WeBreathe working pods acted as a scalable product under WeWork either on a subscription basis or one-off time. In Brief02 I looked at the new subscription economy and how it can help some of the issues we face in London, other than air pollution, such as the housing crisis, changing labour markets and the need to create a professional network/ecosystem for young professionals.
Subscription and pay-as-you-go businesses are undermining an idea that has been entrenched in our collective psyche since the foundation of capitalism: that you have to own something to use it and enjoy it. As noted in a report by The Economist, “80% of customers are demanding new consumption models including subscribing, sharing and leasing – anything except buying a product outright.”
The Subscription Model
Relevant examples leading to the subscription model include ROAM which is a worldwide community of co-living and co-working and PodShare with multiple locations in Los Angeles.
The motivations of building a subscription community are:
- Build a community situated amongst contemporary models of subscription living
- Fostering knowledge and skill exchange between different age and social groups to encourage mutually beneficial relationships within an urban setting
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