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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