Waste/Food

What is often dumped without a second thought may veritably be the starting point for something that may actually sustain an entire community. We realized the importance of composting.

Food is an essential and necessary resource for humans. And for that reason, ironically we often take it for granted. If we think carefully, at any time we realize that, many of the things we throw the trash can turn into energy; objects and even after a recycling process in more food. Given all this, we cannot forget that to find solutions to this primary function, there must be an education and a social conscience. Only then can meet our needs in an ecologically and economically, while thinking about the future and the consequences of not going in the right direction.
Thus, for example, from "green" food waste--compost can be generated. After a process of decomposition and recycling, which may be slow, we would create a significant amount of organic material ready for use as a fertilizer and soil amendment. We can use it in community gardens, landscaping, horticulture and agriculture.
Just put some on our side, we can create life from what was initially thought of as dead.

However, we cannot forget that the greatest concern to this solution is not as work, but the issues that may be generated as odor. This is especially important when we think of the process of degradation of organic matter, apart from all the wildlife that will inhabit it. Even so, a well-functioning compost will not generate any kind of smell. The main reason that our compost smells bad is determined by two primary factors: the amount of food and moisture added. We can take certain precautions for this:
If we take care of adding a proportion of about 50% of each type of material provided (varying the % depending on the time of year).
Stir once a week depending on how compacted to see the contents of the compost pit and cut the remains sufficiently to mix the contents easily obtain a good quality compost, very quickly and without generating any odor or incidents that have not provided.

From Deloreans to Biomass Creation.
Recycling taken to another scale with the Energy creation linked in to provide a more holistic picture.

It has become very essential over the years for every building to be sustainable completely in terms of its water usage as well. It was our aim to get to know this focus better.

Water is the source of all life on Earth. Without it, no living being can survive. Water and the process of purifying it lies at the very heart of our design. As Nature is the greatest engineer, we let ourselves be inspired by its ingenuity. We give sewage water a second life by purifying and processing it into useful sludge and clean water. The sludge can serve as a fertilizer for crop lands, thus lowering the demand for chemical agents such as nitrate and ammonia. The water is treated in a process consisting of multiple steps in series, all of which find their roots in biological phenomena.
As a first step, debris and other macroscopic contamination will be removed from the water by guiding it through a series of filters. As the water progresses through these filters, their mazing will be finer, until almost all macroscopic particles have been filtered out. The filters we will designing for this stage are all inspired on the baleen filters that can be found in whales. Whales use their baleen teeth to filter out plankton and other small edible organisms. They feed by letting the water flow in, and by a movement of their tongue, flow out again through their baleen teeth, leaving only their food behind. These filters have been proved to be very effective and are, indeed, already as patented products on the market.
In a second step, the water will be further purified by a mechanism that mimics the strout’s technique to hold steady in a violent or turbulent river stream. In order to hold steady in these currents, water, entering through the stout’s mouth, will be forced in ever-tightening vortices and finally exits through the gills. Much in this way, a vortex generator, forcing the contaminated water to swirl in ever smalling vortices. As a consequence, contamination and bubbles will be forced in a separate column at the center of the spiraling swirl. The column can now easily be removed (by e.g. sucking out the contamination and bubbles).
The third step is so much about mimicking nature as it is about using nature to help further purify the water. In an anaerobic digestion process, anaerobic microbes will convert the organic contamination in what is called an ‘activated sludge’. This sludge can then be easily separated from the water by mechanical means.
The fourth and final step brings together human waste and mother Nature in a fascinating effort to work together as a water purifying agent. This is achieved through the use of floating islands, made of non-toxic human waste (e.g. compressed PET bottles), and planted with fine flowers and plants. The plants’ roots filter the water in a final stage and will make it pure enough for human consumption. The floating gardens are a joy for the eye and remind the visitor of a picnic in the park or a midsummer’s day at the pond.

Plastics. Metals and Glassware often dumped in trash, can often be processed to be excellent isolators and construction materials. In this way, they provide the logistics for future use as well sustainably

As Nature does, we would like to use food and nature in a circle, which can bring things from food to waste and vice versa. Now, we are thinking about “food” as building’s food, as a resource created by waste itself. Let’s us thinking about how many bottles of water (or any other drink) have been used and waste every day: we could collect and recycle them, creating new construction materials, such as insulating shelter (PET insulation system).
This particular point of view can be expanded to the whole building process:
- Use of metal structure, which could be provided by human waste or those from another building process; it represents in itself, a way to recycle things and parts, because in these kind of constructions it’s possible to change some parts of the building which don’t work anymore, without touching the hole structure and recycling them for another aim. Our very own modular construction process like that of a starfish.
- Use new technology based on waste cold or hot water to condition the temperature and the humidity inside the building (such as green roof, or waste water and air conditioned system).
So, this topic is well-linked to those of water and energy in a building design, our way to respect the environment.

Rethinking Recycling in a way such that it always appeals to the masses. Where positive motivation is evident for regular participation from the inhabitants of the building.

Here we introduced solutions that can push people on recycling more.
Recycling is a well known fact. Everyone talks about it but the changes we can actually see are not that tremendous. Why?
The answer is: “We still have time!” people answer. This is the core of this issue. In our world where everything is evolving so quickly, Scientists and Researchers are talking about something that may happen in twenty years or so or maybe not if we try to do something. It seems that if people do something, nothing will go better just less bad. People cannot feel any benefits of recycling!
Our solutions come here. We are offering solutions which bring direct benefits for people. Then, people can feel a direct improvement in their life by recycling. Our solutions are:
• You buy a can. If you recycle it you have a discount for your next one.
• A system of point creating an emulation between students _ the best one receive a price
• We can achieve the same and more through student associations as well.

For us to completely understand the cyclical concept of Food and Waste, we believe in the concept of Community Gardens which will act as both resource creation and social education tool to improve the environment.

Community gardens are a model of collective and intensive human energy.
The control and maintenance of orchards and gardens in urban environments provides greater space and a better quality of life for its inhabitants.
At present we need new recovery processes of urban space that improve the sustainability of cities, both environmentally and socially, and that enhances sustainable urban metabolism functioning and quality of life of citizens. It will also be necessary to review the management models of these spaces in order to improve its performance. The orchards and gardens are instruments that provide a suitable solution for these requirements.
Involves the implantation of gardens managed by the community itself. This requires training for anyone interested in being part of the process of environmental transformation.
The compost obtained from the organic would serve as a natural fertilizer, creating a cyclical process: Waste = Food
So for this we can follow some basic steps so that the process works correctly:
1. Gather your neighbors
2. Establish a Garden Club
3. Find a spot for the garden
4. Ensure continuous water service
5. Plan the garden, get the necessary materials and organize.

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