Saturday, March 21, 2015

UrbanAg BKK -- Organic Building Material

March 21, 2015 -- Helios Labs Making growing beds and other structures out of bamboo really isn't all that revolutionary. Neither is growing some bamboo nearby to use as a construction material, though it may not often be employed for urban agriculture.


The concept of using biological systems to produce building material onsite may has some revolutionary implications however, if we consider engineered organisms or artificial bioreactos designed specifically to create efficient, biological building materials. We'll be attempting to produce a prototype ecosystem combining high-tech monitoring and automation systems with organic, urban agriculture, with the addition of biological building materials.

In the future, we envision bioreactors or other systems creating input materials for automated computer-driven manufacturing. The inclusion of bamboo cultivation and use in our project is a starting point for this. Could the bamboo be manipulated through other processes or in a bioreactor to process materials for say, panels more suitable for an aquaponics enclosure? Could the same bamboo cells be harvested from a small, natural crop, and be manipulated in other ways to aid in construction?

If nothing else is accomplished through this project beyond securing a natural, onsite material for expanding our project in the future, it will be worth it.

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