“Energy-saving light bulbs will only take us so far. We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool resources” says Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of Design-led Innovation at Philips Design. Philips believes the solution is likely to come from biological processes, which are less energy-consuming and non-polluting. We need to go back to nature in order to move forward. The Microbial Home is a proposal for an integrated cyclical ecosystem where each function’s output is another’s input. In this project the home has been viewed as a biological machine to filter, process and recycle what we conventionally think of as waste – sewage, effluent, garbage and waste water.
The central hub in the Microbial Home system is a repositionable kitchen island, including a chopping surface with vegetable waste grinder, a gas cooking range, a glass tank that shows energy reserves and glass elements showing pressure, volume and readiness of compost sludge. It consists of a methane digester, which converts bathroom waste solids and vegetable trimmings into methane gas that is used to power a series of functions. The gas from the methane digester is fed to a cooking range and gas mantle lights. ‘Bio-gas’ is produced by developing a culture of suitable bacteria living on organic waste material from the home. The gas the bacteria generate is collected and burnt. This arrangement is called a methane digester and it has been used in various configurations for centuries. The gas from the methane digester in the Microbial Home is fed to a cooking range and gas mantle lights. Water pipes are preheated by the digester and channeled to other components in the Microbial Home system.
Chopping surface with vegetable waste grinder. Materials used in the design are copper, cast iron, glass and bamboo.
Technological development has enabled us to mimic nature’s processes. Now, all that is lacking is a collective change in consciousness to take us into a Biological Age where by-products are no longer waste but fuel for other systems.
The paternoster domestic plastic waste up-cycler uses mycelium to break downplastic packaging waste. The waste up-cycler concept utilizes the properties of fungi that have powerful enzymes and decomposing power. A mycelium attached to plastic, has the ability to decompose and metabolize plastic. Provided the inks on the plastic did not contain toxic heavy metals, this mycelium could in theory generate edible mushrooms.
In this concept the plastics are ground into small chips and mixed with a fungal starter culture in a glass canister. A hand-cranked conveyor moves the canisters along a circuit within a dark cavity. Each week plastic grounds are mixed with mycelium. It takes several weeks to break down the plastic or other waste material. At late stages in the cycle the contents are exposed to daylight (via an aperture) and air allowing the mycelium to sprout mushroom fruit, ready to eat. The decomposing waste can be molded into shapes.
食品柜由一个蒸发冷却器和蔬菜储存系统组成，内置在餐桌上。The home of the future will need to accommodate a much greater proportion of local and home-grown food.
食品柜恢复了围坐在餐桌旁准备食物的仪式。在其中心有一个双壁的陶土蒸发冷却器，隔间和小室的壁厚和体积不同，旨在使不同类型的食物保持在不同的最佳温度。
Urban bee-hive. The glass shell filters light to let through the orange wavelength which bees use for sight. The design prevents worry that the hive would freeze during subzero nights.
The urban beehive consists of an outside flower pot with a bee entryway above it. The inside glass container has honeycomb frames for the bees to build their wax cells on. A pull on the bottom of the hive is a smoke actuator that lets you calm the bees down before you collect some honey.
An integrated cyclical ecosystem where each function’s output is another’s input. We view the home as a biological machine to filter, process and recycle what we conventionally think of as waste – sewage, effluent, garbage, waste water. Research suggests that we should move closer to nature and challenges the wisdom of annihilating the bacteria that surround us.
In the home of the future we will have to rethink our own waste and convert it into a usable asset.
A waste separating squatting toilet filters urine while channelling excreta to a methane digester in the Microbial Home system. The filter array, comprised of charcoal, sand and ceramic filters, supports a range of plants to clean the urine. The system is designed to show the energy value in human waste and raise awareness about wasting water. It draws attention to the necessary systemic shift from utility dependent sanitation systems to regenerative localized solutions that see waste as a necessary part of a domestic eco-system.
The bio-light concept explores the use of bioluminescent bacteria, which are fed with methane and composted material (drawn from the methane digester in the Microbial Home system). Alternatively the cellular light array can be filled with fluorescent proteins that emit different frequencies of light. Each cell is connected via silicon tubes to the food source, (which is drawn from a reservoir at the base) creating a closed loop system for the living material.
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Luminescence is the phenomenon where light is produced at low temperatures, as opposed to incandescence, where light is generated as a result of high heat. Bioluminescent organisms produce an enzyme, luciferase, which interacts with a particular type of light-emitting molecule called a luciferin.
Kudos to Philips – more, please!
All info and images:www.design.philips.com
When I had my warehouse space south of Market in San Francisco, we never imagined quite hard enouth….. I love it that these are all working models, as shown by the photos in a loft space – not gedanksexperimenten.
The terra-cotta cooler is quite elegant!. A goodly amount of molds and casting forms are not illustrated, but were needed to make the units. The sand-bed explains how it works – just add water.
The beehive structure is very interesting. The disk-shaped wax comb-frames are entirely different from any I have seen in any other modern beehives – for the past two centuries, they’ve always been rectangular. (Beekeepers provide pressed-wax frames for bees to build with; otherwise, bees use about 10 lbs of honey to make one lb of wax, cutting way into honey yield.) The children are looking at a working hive – the disk frames have been built out into full combs.
我不清楚“垃圾分类蹲厕”是如何运作的，只是你应该蹲在哪里?
Does the ‘bio-light ‘ actualy work? I want to see it in action!
“塑料垃圾回收”这个词有些晦涩难懂。我不是要否定这个想法，而是提出一些重要的问题:究竟什么样的塑料可以被什么样的菌丝体消化?结果是什么样的蘑菇?在塑料上生长的蘑菇可以食用吗?病房后的非菌渣是什么，如何使用?
Hi there Rashid,
Great comments! Learned something as to beehives from you, thanks. I can’t tell if they made an actual bio-light or just illumined the photos. See photos here:https://www.design.philips.com/philips/sites/philipsdesign/about/design/designportfolio/design_futures/design_probes/projects/microbial_home/bio_light.page
关于塑料上循环器，飞利浦没有回答你所寻求的菌丝体种类的一些问题，具体结果如何，真正可食用?等. .Good questions…
多棒的厨房啊。我下次改造的时候一定会把这些想法记在心里!
I absolutely love it!!!!! I want one! It’s so inspiring to see that there may be possibilities to sustainable living other than just living on a field. This is definitely genius and must have taken months if not years to design! I’m in school as a Environmental Engineer and I hope that someday I can design systems like this.
Link at the end to Philips’ website doesn’t work…
Thanks for the heads up…
way to think people ,love the system ……
this is very inspirational
Right, Everyone is just lining up to get one of those squat toilets. lol
Plastic recycler: Decomposing the plastic means it can’t be reused, and despite their claims we don’t yet have plastic-eating fungi which produce edible fruiting bodies. If you want plastic to be ‘molded into shapes’ get a Filabot and turn it into feedstock for a 3D printer.
Larder: The cooler is incredibly energy- and water-inefficient and does not allow for extended storage, especially of things like milk, eggs or more perishable produce.
Beehive: I’ve talked to professional and enthusiastic amateur beekeepers about this design. The kindest expressions they come up with are ones of scorn. It’s not a real beehive. It’s an art-student’s cool design.
Biogas generator: A solid, mature technology. But the amount of gas you’d get from it is questionable.
Bio-lights: With high-efficiency LEDs becoming cheaper the amount of care and resources you’d have to put in in return for the light you’d get out probably aren’t worth it.
Toilet: Basic hygeine dictates keep food preparation away from defecation. That toilet had better not be in the kitchen
水槽:木制水槽是高概念、高价格、低实用性的。
When will these be available at IKEA??
严重吗?你就没有什么好话要说吗?你是什么人，连你自己都没亲眼见过设计有什么缺陷你就有权利指责别人?我们就应该相信你的话吗，某个随便的互联网人可能只是一个全球精英，试图阻止我们投资如此潜在的伟大和生活/世界改变的东西。说真的，我不相信你说的话因为你对这些设计不屑一顾。我真的不在乎你说什么，a·纽兰。我有一些信念。
Though it may be a idea right now I think we do need to start thinking bigger and broader. I’m all for change just look at how we do things now, not good.
我是一个养蜂人，一看到那个充满艺术气息的“蜂巢”就会感到害怕。把蜂箱保持在室内温度肯定会杀死你的蜜蜂，因为它们不会进入冬眠。内置的烟机就像装有内置勺子的盘子一样自鸣得意。
蒸发冷却器不能放在你房间的中间。它会使空气中充满水蒸气，然后停止工作，让你在墙上长出很多霉菌。
There is no mycelium that can break down plastic – and if we had one, we would certainly encounter it in a full grown waste treatment facility, with bioreactors and filters and a crew of workers and scientists. Not a hand-cranked wooden contraption that sits in mom’s kitchen. Same to the methane digester – you don’t want to have one of these in your enclosed kitchen
You don’t solve problems by creating artsy nifty-looking kitchen interior and claim it will magically turn your waste into energy, while refrigerating your stuff and growing your food for free.
这些概念是了不起的，给了我希望，我们可以真正改变我们与环境互动的破坏性、浪费和无望的方式。我祈祷我能活着看到整个世界都在使用你设计的神奇系统!
Philips design is a lovely science fiction story about our future life that maybe (hopefully) come true.
And this is exactly what we need after years of depressing knowledge of our over consumption. Nobody has so far been able to give us appealing visions of a new sustainable future. So thank you Philips for giving us hope and direction.
It may not be a perfect working model that can perform the tasks to our satisfaction yet. But Rome was not build in one day. It seems to have got so much truth in it that it is worth to continue this development.
蜜蜂不冬眠。它们在北方的气候中冬眠，因为它们受不了寒冷。在南方，它们全年都很活跃。至于设计，非常酷，尽管我认为蜜蜂可以自己做蜂巢，但它们不需要我们人类那么多的帮助。爱所有的想法，不能等待那个未来!
梅尔，耶鲁一年前在亚马逊发现了一种蘑菇，它吃并分解塑料，可以在厌氧环境中生活。在拆开一件物品之前，试着有一些实际的知识;especially one in which he states that the device could theoretically do something rather than be proven to do so…