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

METABOLIC DESIGN

A Metabolic design is a set od interralated processes that allows growth, reproduction, etc.
It is understood as a closed cycle of mutual interralationship of the componets, able to recreate again and again, constantly changing, evoluting.
A Metabolic design should be resilient, self-sufficient, part of our living system.

Space – Time -  Matter – Energy – Information

PROGRAMME/ CONTEXT

The disgn of Architectural interventions that can negotiate and integrate with socio-cultural and geo-political or to a building system that involves its own production, etc.

POLYVALENCE AND DESIGNED SYSTEMS

The projects embrance a multi-systematic logic to design and materiality that seeks to synthesize architecture as an ecosystem involving many different species operating in a complex and interdependent way. The draw on number of different design systems, cooperating as a coherent architectural outcome, both within their internal relations and their relations to the outside world.

MYCOLOGY Architecture propose a metabolic cycle that integrates multiscalar processes creating a interaction between people and nature. It is a proposal for a prototype of a mycoforestry process for Collserola Natural Park of Barcelona.

Collserola lies fully within the area of Mediterranean influence, characterized by mild winters, hot and dry summers, moderate annual thermal oscillation and seasonal rainfall which is, overall, low and highly irregular, ending on high rates of fires.

The symbiosis process between mycelium and agricultural waste is necessarly required to increase natural and social capital of this former agricultural city.

MATERIAL ARE ORIGINATED FROM THE SITE

The agricultural waste is re-cycle and re-invented into in-situ biomaterial which act as a mycofiltration system for the “Mesias“ and other urbanized areas of Collserola  and as a mycomembrane for Mycoforestry.

It will be solidified by microbial agent called “mycelia“ or roots of mushroom, then grows itself as a living material and evolves into a living architecture for food (mushroom) production, public recreation, soil moisture retention and erosion resistant soils.

Finally the architecture will be biodegradable into a fertilizer (mycorestoration) as a close-loop design back into the soil.

WE GROW ARCHITECTURE

The young material which has wetness or soft bodies are solidified to hard and dry as it is cured by heat, and within the proximity of branches when it is wet, emerging the self-binding property, as it appears in mycelium foraging pattern, that enables the rigidity of the whole geometry more stronger.

Hence, an evolutionary design strategy has been used to incorporate material cycles with architectural program cycles through time based adapt-ability, grow-ability and decompose-ability.

Material Research

You could find a complete information of the project in the following link:

http://issuu.com/silvia.oliva11/docs/booklet_som

Video of the Mycofiltation Proposal:

https://youtu.be/DZF1Fq0otqQ

As it usually happens, after an idea, a method of application goes next  and here I use a knowledge from the hypothesis to see fully a structure of the Earth and its process of growing to pick out all the necessary elements for researching. One of these elements become the first process of photosynthesis 3 mln years ago.

The next step to this happy day of the end of the semester is searching a “Metabolic Pixel” or Higgs boson, so to say. For me it becomes microalgae. As it is very popular theme in the internet, you can easily find all of the information about it: history, theory, experiments and their results. Here I don’t need to invent anything new except an implementation in Valldaura lab. This place is ideal to sacrifice all of our ideas, as so many of them were rejected because of their inability to be showed in a prototype. For me it was not a big problem so I also decide to include a local restaurant in researching and put a “backbone” of my water treatment system (or just The System) in a valley between 2 hills.

The last step of the second semester was proof that everything that you’ve said before is a true and, in my case, that microalgae can clean the water, i.e. create a prototype, make an experiment and show the results to jury.

Third semester studying in IAAC was dedicated to improving existing prototype and, as a final point, creating a new structure, including all of the prototypes of all DWN group. Also it was necessary to research an implementation of our projects to Collserola Park, which has bigger scale and different features. Building of this new construction was outstanding exam for everyone who participate in that (photos of step by step building you can find in my previous posts).

The purpose of our structure is a cooking food with pretreatment of water, using of methane from compost and continuously growing plants for eating.

Some of my work you can see lower, but for full presentation go to: http://issuu.com/katelevkina/docs/_______________________pdf/1

The last photos you can see after the final presentation. So check the IAAC blog regularly and you will see everything.

Thank you and good luck!

Food is one of the basic needs of every human being. Not long ago it was effortful to obtain food, now we can get products from all over the world in our supermarkets. Almost 30% of the world‘s population are overweight, and at the same time 2 billion people are hungry or eat unhealthy food. Agriculture and cities have always been bound together since the beginning of civilization. Mesopotamia, widely considered to be the cradle of civilization in the west is the best example. By 3000 b.c. Egyptian and mesopotamian farmers developed the world‘s first large-scale irrigation system. Nowadays 38.6% of the world‘s land area is agricultural, while undeveloped and unmodified land is 46.5%. Countries with higher commercial land agricultural area tend to have a high rate of deforestation. This is due to the fact that the main driver of deforestation is agricultural land allotment. Also, nearly half of the crops grown are used as food for animals.

The main focus is to combine agricultural strategies into the forest stratum and have agricultural products readily available for both public and private use. Nowadays urban orchards are becoming a trend since plots of agreeable land aren’t readily available, the proposal is to provide an agricultural system in the form of pods which are suspended on trees, this way households and different institutions can easily adapt this system in their backyards or in allotted public orchard areas. An aeroponics system is used instead of conventional geoponics, making plant growth rate increase substantially. This can help promote local economies, community interaction, a healthier lifestyle and environmental conservation.

Aeon is a project of a vertical garden, it’s a metabolic cycle that includes economical and sustainable use of resources. To make it work and to be able to test it we researched about the ecosystems, plants and animals inside the forest of Valldaura.

VALLDAURA

‘Learning from nature to change the world’

Valldaura’s aim is to be a self sufficient laboratory which research is based on ecological principles with the use of modern technology.

Part of the research was to create the prototype for the Valldaura landscape, which is a forested area. Local plants and animals were taken into account, as to maximize the production yield. Animals aid in ways like pollination and pest control. Harmoniously linking nature and humans.

Valldaura has a lack of arable land and sources of water, the Aeon’s aeroponics system allows soil-less planting and lesser amount of water used.

ECONOMICAL WATER CYCLE

The Aeon uses an aeroponics system which is a process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium. The basic principle of aeroponics is to grow plants suspended in a closed or semi-closed environment by spraying the plant’s dangling roots and lower stem with an atomizer.

The main source of water can be tapped from any water reservoir/collector. Each pod can have 2 or 3 layers depending on the size of the plants, and every layer will have a sprinkler attached. The interior of the pods are covered with latex to help collect the water, while the pipe below the pods transfers the excess water from one pod to the other.

METABOLIC DIAGRAM

PROCESS

“The goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings”

–Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Picture yourself in a forest where everything around you is food. Fruit trees forming an open canopy; assorted native wild edibles, herbs and vegetables thickly cover the ground and are consequently hung from the trees. Food and natural medicine can be easily harvested, and in today’s world since the price of both are steadily increasing it is important to find new ways to cultivate them easily and on any site. The ultimate goal of forest gardening is not only the growing of crops but also, the cultivation and perfectionof a new way of seeing, thinking and acting in the world. By this we can help change people’s lifestyles and habits to a healthier and more productive one.

Consumerism has become a big problem now, people tend to buy all the goods they need rather than finding ways to create it themselves. Take for example the FabLabs, they are promoting do-it -yourself projects which not only aid us economically but also mentally and physically.

The Aeon is a system that promotes sustainability since it targets environmental, social and economic factors. Environmentally, through the increase in plant and animal biodiversity, natural resource use, and pollution prevention . Socially, through the promotion of a healthier lifestyle, education and community interaction. Economically, through cost savings and research/development.

More information on the project can be found in this link:

http://issuu.com/wiltonmachadoneves/docs/aeon_final_presentation/1