http://issuu.com/shashankshahabadi/docs/final_booklet_1

Our goal is to combine farming technology and agroecological strategies for increasing food production, fighting climate change and poverty, protecting soil and water while maintaining healthy, livable communities and local economies, motivating positive behavior changes for sustainable lifestyle.

LAND USE AND FOOD DISTRIBUTION NOW

13 million ha are deforested every year

smallholders produce 80% of food consumed in developing countries

to feed 9 billion people will require a 70% increase in food production

1.000.000.000 people in the world are hungry

another billion eat unheathy food

almost 30% of the world’s population are overweight

AGRICULTURAL AREA

40% of the world’s land area. Countries with a higher commercial land agricultural area tend to have a high rate of deforestation. Also, nearly half of the crops grown are actually used as food for animals.

CROPLAND PRODUCTION GAP

Dark spots (mainly the biggest production countries ) indicate locations where significantly more wheat, maize and rice could be produced without deforestation.

FIRST PROTOTYPE

Through Arduino we control humidity, temperature and irrigation, creating the best conditions for growing beans.

The water cycle is used as the main concept to make our second prototype and will be used in the future.

VALLDAURA

We want to place our next prototype in the forest of  Valldaura, to show the possibility of combining agriculture and forest. We planted vegetables in the Food Fab will be transferred in the right time to our final prototype.

SITE

 We analyzed average rainfall, wind temperatures, relative humidity and wind frequency through seasons to understand better which are the better plants to grow in the area of Valldaura.

Choosing the site we observed the daily and annual sun path in order to know where exactly to plant.

Sketching the future prototype we decided to use one water collector that will be connected to all the pots and that will provide water by capillary action and due to  the gravity force. All the pots are connected one to another with ropes, so the capillary action works also between them. The pot itself will be working with the same water cycle and water filtering principals as our first and second prototypes.

Metabolic pixel 2.0: A Cycle within Cycles.

This project focuses on utilising bio-waste in a variety of techniques. The idea is to incorporate IaaC’s city campus and Valldaura campus into one metabolic cycle. Furthermore, this process will aid at benefiting the Valldaura campus with an energy supply through composting food waste from both campuses, in the hills and city. This composting process produces a considerable amount of bio gas that consists mainly of Methane. Through extracting this Methane, energy for heating and cooking can be produced and stored depending on rate of use.

When the composting material is at optimum conditions, the rise in gas production rate results in high pressure. This discovery presented an opportunity to utilise said pressure in various structural aspects. Being able to control the speed and rate of gas production creates the opportunity for manipulation of structure through inflation vs. deflation or expansion vs. contraction. This, in turn, can be used in different scales ie. through combination with PV, Shading devices to create a selective greenhouse effect using minimal gas output to create maximum coverage.

The Metabolic pixel 2.0 aka the “MethLAB” is a small scale composting machine that can be stationed at many locations in Valldaura. In the next few weeks we will conduct further site analysis to select the optimum locations for placement. Using a “satellite” effect, a number of pixels will be placed in said locations and tested. This method will increase coverage and mobility of the structure thus creating a more efficient cycle.

FOOD WASTE  —> STRUCTURE  —->  ENERGY

Jonathan Minchin give us a tour around the house and give us a lecture about the Valldaura opportunities…