Short description
a domestic ecosystem by Philips probes
Description
The Microbial Home Probe project consists of a domestic ecosystem that challenges conventional design solutions to energy, cleaning, food preservation, lighting and human waste.
|
|
|
Our world is sending us warning signals that we are disturbing its equilibrium. A drastic cut in our environmental impact is called for. This Probe explores how 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, waste water.
“Designers have an obligation to understand the urgency of the situation, and translate humanity’s needs into solutions. 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.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Creating a cyclical eco-system
In the Microbial Home Probe we adopt a systemic approach to many of the domestic processes we take for granted and ask questions about how we deal with resources. It is a proposal for 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. The Probe suggests that we should move closer to nature and challenges the wisdom of annihilating the bacteria that surround us. It proposes strategies for developing a balanced microbial ecosystem in the home.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
The Biological Age
While the electro-mechanical age may have caused the problem, it could also help us find the solution. 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, one where materials can repair themselves and where by-products are no longer waste but fuel for other systems. We are going to live through this epoch change whether we choose to or not. Failure to adjust our thinking, and with it our behaviors, will force the earth to exercise its self-correcting mechanisms over us. Necessity, as the old adage goes, is the mother of invention. Only one question remains: what part do we want to play?
|
|
|
|
Qualitative Analysis
Microbial home is a forward-looking design project presented by Philips during the Dutch Design Week 2011.
Microbial home is a group of design concepts which represents an innovative and sustainable approach to energy, waste, lighting food preservation, cleaning, grooming, and human waste management. Its components are the bio-digester island, the larder, the urban beehive, the bio-light, the filtering squatting toilet and the paternoster plastic waste up-cycler. Every of them has a particular design and it's a standing structure, but all components are linked to each other through the process. Microbial Home is a proposal for an integrated cyclical ecosystem where each function's output is another's input. In the 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, waste water).
All the elements of Microbial home are designed to be a balance between beauty and functionality. The contained dimensions and their simple but high-quality aesthetics make them versatile to a wide range of environments. Microbial home is a system that doesn't depend on the context. It is a sort of organism that breaks clichés of the traditional housing way of thinking, making the concept of house alive as much as the inhabitants.
Microbial home suggests that people should move closer to nature and proposes strategies for developing a balanced microbial ecosystem in the home. "Designers have an obligation to explore solutions which are by nature less energy-consuming and non-polluting", says Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of Design-led Innovation at Philips Design ". "We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, how homes consume energy and how entire communities can pool resources", concludes van Heerden. In the Microbial Home Probe, Philips adopts a systemic approach to many of the domestic processes we take for granted and asks questions about how we deal with resources. The Probe suggests that we should move closer to nature and challenges the wisdom of annihilating the bacteria that surround us. It proposes strategies for developing a balanced mycrobial ecosystem in the home.
