Designing Living Systems To Clean Polluted Water BioArchitecture

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let’s travel east to magnificent Kolkata

and meet Rahm a small-scale bangle maker

rom gets his water supply from the

natural stream of water running adjacent

to his village after using the buckets

of colored water containing heavy metals

such as cadmium zinc and nickel he

without any treatment simply disposes

off this water into a sand pit dug in

his backyard others who can’t even

manage that pour the polluted water back

into the same river from where they

first collected it like ROM there are

more than 3 million small-scale entities

across India that contributes to up to

40% of the heavy metals present in our

polluted rivers that’s because these

people that form the bedrock of India’s

economy have no access to any kind of

water treatment facility I met Ram in

2017 as part of an interdisciplinary

team of researchers that included a

biologist a biochemical engineer and an

architect they wanted to delve deep into

better understanding the root causes of

water pollution especially in

small-scale communities we visited

small-scale bangle makers in Calcutta

and even textile dyes in Pawnee but the

textile capital of India it was

devastating to see the impact on their

living conditions due to waterborne

diseases which could have easily been

prevented so instead we took on a

challenge to empower Rama and his fellow

panchayat communities to clean the

polluted water by themselves using the

resources and techniques that are

readily available to them while still

managing to introduce futuristic

techniques of wastewater treatment

a system that performs naturally

transitioning Rams linear process into

one of a circular economy

my colleague dr. Brenda Parker had

already been researching the potentials

of using a living organism a micro algae

to clean polluted water yes

micro algae that green patchy often see

floating over ponds and lakes micro

algae grows by absorbing carbon dioxide

and sunlight performing photosynthesis

it produces a set of compounds that

allows it to capture heavy metals such

as cadmium zinc and nickel heavy metals

that are present in life-threatening

concentrations in more than 170 rivers

across India they would grow this algae

in massive liquid containers systems

that are expensive and require large

amounts of space and energy neither of

which Ram has so instead her team worked

to formulate a material a material that

could replace these liquid containers we

developed a seaweed based gel that

allows the micro algae to grow becoming

greener with time seaweed itself has a

form of micro algae therefore this

material has its own filtration

properties but how can we introduce this

material within ROMs bangle making

process especially with the limited

resources rom has we designed tiles that

are lined with deep channels to hold

this micro algae containing material

inspired by the different wanes on a

leaf that have evolved to uniformly

distribute water it also performs a

completely biological process these

styles can be assembled into a wall as

big or as small depending on the space

available where it collectively treats

water for a small panchayat community or

is exclusive to roms coloring unit

as an architect I strongly believe that

if we are to tackle wicked problems such

as water pollution we need to rethink

the functions our buildings and our

cities can perform for instance a wall

that performs photosynthesis and cleans

polluted water of all we call Indus

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these Styles can be easily be made by

Ram himself using locally available

materials and traditional techniques

such as clay and lad today using a mold

which was digitally designed and

fabricated in our studios at UCL the

user is required to simply pour the

polluted water into the inlets present

at the top of the wall the water that

enters the system running onto the

branch channels allowing the microalgae

to absorb the heavy metals present in

the polluted water the water can be

recirculated for further treatment

depending on the level of contamination

leaving behind a bucket of cleaner water

which rom could reuse or safely dispose

now just the way we all have preferred

to scenes different species of

microalgae like to eat different types

of heavy metals this allows us to

tailor-make in this specific to the

manufacturing process and the

contaminants identified in our polluted

waters our lab tests have shown

microalgae to reduce the concentration

of cadmium by tenfold within 30 to 45

minutes water which is fit to be reused

by ROM but the story doesn’t just end

here what happens to the heavy metals

now trapped in this material the algae

either breaks down the pollutants into a

completely harmless state or they can be

extracted from the gel and brought back

into the system create other valuable

products closing the loop this

microalgae containing material will also

need to be replenished from time to time

just like the cartridges in our water

filters therefore through community

engagement workshops we can educate ROM

his wife and even his children with the

techniques of preparing and maintaining

their own algae gel solution creating

new forms of employment opportunities

the construction of Indus will also

create an interdependent Network between

the local tile artisan and the

biomaterial supply

allowing them to maintain indus locally

creating a truly circular economy

distrustful collaboration between all of

us including governments NGOs public and

private organizations it’s fundamental

in unleashing the true potentials of the

circular loop let us not just learn from

nature but work collaboratively with it

by designing systems that allow us to

act locally and impact globally thank

you

[Applause]

you

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