In the natural world, the plant kingdom is very interconnected with the animal kingdom. Plants provide oxygen and clean water as well as food and various other services to the animals, whereas animals provide food (excrements) and nutrient rich water (urine) as well as carbondioxide and other services such as seed dispersal to plants. In an urban system however, the environment is dominated by very few species and plants are usually underrepresented. This lead to the question whether it would be possible to design a building in which plants clean urban waste streams, such as sewage and polluted air while at the same time providing fresh food.
The research was divided in three main topics; air, water and food. This was based on the existence of systems in which plants are used to purify either air or water or are used to grow food. Systems in which plants purify air are for example green living walls, such as the ones from Nedlaw developed by dr. Darlington. Systems of plants purifying water are constructed wetlands outside or living machines for interior spaces. Living machines were first developed by John Todd and are now being further developed by Living Machine ®. The only living machine in the Netherlands is at Emmen Zoo (more info in Dutch: de Waterfabriek). The focus for all topics was on interior systems, because exterior systems are dependent on climatic conditions and often hardly function during winter time. In more temperate or tropical climates than the Netherlands, this is less of an issue. For food production systems the focus is on systems in which plants are being grown indoors and on hydroponics or aeroponics, as in these systems air and water flows are already existent. This means it is easier to use waste air and wastewater in these systems. These ideas let to the following diagrams in which vegetables, fruit and herbs are being grown on waste water and aerated with waste air.
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| Aeroponics Hydroponics Hydroponics with growing medium |
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