A skyscraper will purify Shenzhens air with aquaponic gardens

Zaha Hadid Architects has been crowned a competition winner for its proposed design of Tower C at Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base, a planned business and financial center that will serve the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. Informed by 3D-modeling tools, the skyscraper features a futuristic, energy-efficient design with terraced levels, dramatic curves and expansive glazing. The project targets high-performance energy standards with environmentally friendly elements such as water collection and recycling as well as aquaponic gardens to help purify the air.

Located within a global technology hub, the Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base will accommodate 300,000 employees every day and include residential developments, a transportation center, venues for international conferences, exhibitions, cultural and art programming and a landscaping plan with native grasslands and coastal wetlands. Tower C, which will be located at the intersection of the Shenzhen’s planned north-south green axis and the east-west urban corridor, will serve as a “multidimensional vertical city” housing a mix of programming including offices, retail, dining, entertainment amenities, a hotel, convention center and a variety of cultural facilities. The building will be located above a subterranean public transport interchange served by the expanding Shenzhen Metro network.

Related: ZHA unveils a low-carbon Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum

Taking inspiration from the adjacent park and plazas, the architects have crafted Tower C as an extension of the landscape with a terraced podium that supports two towers with heights of nearly 400 meters. Double-insulated glazing fitted with solar shades will wrap around the building. To reduce energy use, the building will be equipped with high-efficiency equipment and automated indoor environmental controls. Solar photovoltaic panels and a water recycling system will further reduce resource consumption. For enhanced health and wellness, low-VOC materials will be installed throughout the interior while outdoor aquaponic gardens grown on every terraced level will serve as a protective biological filter against air contaminants.

The architects noted, “The design of Tower C integrates the city and nature within its central green axis with the transit orientated development (TOD) of Shenzhen’s new spine, creating a ‘superscape’ that will become a tower of the future within the Super Headquarters Base.”

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Planet City explores housing the world population in one city

Los Angeles-based film director and architect Liam Young recently released his latest work — Planet City, a speculative and provocative glimpse into a future where urban sprawl is reversed and the entire world population is housed in a single, hyper-dense metropolis. Launched at the NGV Triennial exhibition, the 15-minute-long animated film was created with input from a global network of scientists, theorists and economists to inform the director’s depiction of sustainable technologies that are already available or are currently in development. As a result, Planet City shows a possible future where a population of 10 billion people could live with minimal impact on the environment to give the rest of the natural world outside of the city’s borders a chance to rejuvenate.

Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria for the NGV Triennial, Planet City addresses climate change as an ideological challenge, rooted in culture and politics, rather than simply a technological one. The film-based work presents an alternative future where, through a global consensus, 10 billion people “retreat together” into a densely populated metropolis to allow the rest of the world to return to “wilderness.” The metropolis’ residents would engage in community-sharing of resources and draw on renewable energy and food systems as part of the city’s zero-waste, “closed-loop” system. Recycled materials would be used for the city’s construction.

Related: Washington is the first U.S. state to hold a climate assembly

“The cities of science fiction are often weighed down by dystopian tales and dark, fearful futures,” Liam Young explained in a National Gallery of Victoria press release. “However, Planet City, although wildly speculative, is a plausible and optimistic proposal developed from real calculations and research. It is both an extraordinary image of tomorrow and an urgent examination of our present.”

The film, the trailer of which can be viewed here, is on view at the NGV Triennial, a Melbourne-based event with free entry that runs until April 18, 2021.

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Water-powered shower head speaker made from recycled plastic wins honors at CES

Whether it’s podcasts, music or audiobooks, humans are streaming audio content now more than ever. Now, thanks to wireless tech company Ampere, the sound doesn’t have to stop when it’s time for a shower. Audiophiles, meet Shower Power, the water-powered showerhead made from recycled plastic.

This hydropower speaker syncs with Bluetooth to deliver high-quality sound straight to your showerhead, automatically turning on and off with the water. Skip tracks, play or pause with the touch of a button on the showerhead itself, or use the waterproof remote control. The device’s design features a cylindrical shape with a South Wave amplifier to provide excellent listening quality, despite its small size.

Related: 8 ways to make your bathroom more eco-friendly

If the 360-degree sound wave diffuser isn’t enough, Ampere has also designed a “Droplet” mini Bluetooth speaker that connects to the Shower Power so you can fill your entire bathroom with music. The company also has plans to develop a LED light edition of the speaker that syncs music with a light show inside the shower.

So how does it work exactly? The patent-pending proprietary hydropower system turns water flow into energy as the water spins an impeller housed inside the device, like a watermill. That system is connected to a small generator that charges an internal battery, turning the Shower Power on as the water turns on and storing power even after the shower turns off — enough for 20 hours of listening time on a full charge. The device is made to fit onto any showerhead, resulting in an easy one-minute installation and the ability to take it with you while traveling.

Energy isn’t the only thing Shower Power saves. The speaker is made out of a compound using 100% recycled ocean plastic developed specifically for shower use. Each device reuses 15 ocean-bound plastic water bottles. With all these unique features, it’s no surprise that Shower Power was named as an honoree for the 2021 CES Innovation Awards. The suggested retail price is $99, but it is still available for preorder through Indiegogo or Kickstarter at a limited discounted price.

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You can make this 3D-printed, bioplastic face shield at home

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many issues of waste into the spotlight, starting with the sheer quantity of petroleum-based personal protective equipment (PPE) used in the medical field and by everyday users gearing up to go to the grocery store or park. Designer Alice Potts homed in on this problem early, countering it with face shields made from food waste and flowers.

These face shields required more than just a little research and development. Potts wanted to tackle the issue of plastic-based PPE but approached it by also addressing food waste. Potts said the face shields are biodegradable, because they are a product of food and flowers collected from local markets, butchers and households in the surrounding London area. The variety of organic materials affect the final product, meaning that each mask varies in unique ways.

Related: Engineering student turns food waste into renewable energy

“Every colour is completely seasonal depending on what flowers are blooming, what vegetables and fruits are growing and earth that is in and around London,” the designer said.

Potts was initially inspired by her brother, a paramedic who reported a lack of PPE for himself and other first responders and medical care workers. So Potts set out to create a more sustainable option intended for the public, because the shields likely don’t offer the same level of protection as required in a medical care setting.

With the recipe for the face shield and a design for the 3D-printed top section, Potts plans to make the template available to everyone via an open-source design.

“I want to combine the advantages of technology with sustainability to form a template of the top of a face shield that can be 3D-printed from recycled plastic with a bioplastic recipe for the shield for people to make at home,” she said.

The Dance Biodegradable Personal Protective Equipment (DBPPE) Post COVID Facemasks, as Potts named them, will be on exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, an event that highlights art, design, and architecture and runs through April 2021.

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Images via James Stopforth and Sean Fennessy via Alice Potts

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Shahar Livne turns recycled ocean plastic into Balenciaga jewelry

Award-winning conceptual material designer Shahar Livne collaborated with fashion design company Balenciaga to create a new line of jewelry made from recycled ocean plastic. Inhabitat caught up with Livne to hear more about the process and inspiration behind the project.

“The collaboration took inspiration from my ongoing speculative research project ‘Metamorphism,’ which investigates the future of plastics within the geological record of the Earth and the rebirth of it as a possible future semi-natural material I named ‘Lithoplast,'” Livne told Inhabitat. “In the  ‘Metamorphism’ project, I use different plastics, ocean plastics, or landfill-designated plastics, in developing the new jewelry collection we worked with both, mainly PP and HDPE.” The jewelry line will be available for purchase on the Balenciaga website in May 2021.

Related: Nonprofit Washed Ashore crafts art and jewelry from ocean plastic

The ocean plastic comes from Oceanworks, a worldwide marketplace for recycled plastic products and raw materials. The company sources plastic materials from all over the world, focusing mainly in Southeast Asia, where it says 60% of the world’s ocean plastic originates. The jewelry line, which consists of bracelets, earrings and rings, also uses marble waste material sourced from a marble processing company as well as landfill-derived plastic from recycling companies.

“It was interesting for us to work with OceanWorks-provided materials since we wanted to find the most sustainable and social option,” Livne went on to say. “OceanWorks is a global network that collected plastics from different areas, among them the oceans, with the help of fishermen and other beach cleaning operations, and the connection seemed perfect.”

The designer followed a similar process to her “Metamorphism” project, using heat and pressure to create a composite material. The material is then molded by hand into vintage-style shapes designed by Balenciaga, 3D-scanned to create a mold (in order to recreate a coherent style for the entire collection) and then finished by hand by Livne herself.

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Foster + Partners designs climate-responsive Lusail Towers in Qatar

Foster + Partners has revealed designs for Lusail Towers, a sustainable landmark project in Qatar that targets 4 stars in the regional Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS). Created as part of a larger Qatari masterplan, also designed by Foster + Partners, the 1.1 million-square-meter Lusail Towers development will consist of a pair of 70-story-tall towers and two 50-story-tall towers in a symmetrical layout centered on a plaza. All towers will employ active and passive systems to reduce the project’s energy demand and carbon footprint, from solar fins that protect against the harsh sunlight to high-pressure hydronic systems that reduce pumping energy.

Designed to anchor a new central business district in the city, the Lusail Towers will host the headquarters for the Qatar National Bank, Qatar Central Bank and Qatar Investment Authority alongside other international organizations such as Qatari Diar. The cluster of four climate-responsive towers will be complemented by a series of smaller podium buildings that help break down the project to a comfortable human scale and engage the streetscape with shops, cafes and restaurants. The public realm at the ground level will be further enhanced with lush, drought-tolerant and majority native landscaping that will cover 20% of the site. Graywater, rainwater and condensate will be recycled and reused for irrigation.

Related: UNStudio designs sculptural, driverless metro stations for Doha

Like the towers, the podium buildings are engineered for a reduced energy footprint and will feature molded concrete panels for enhanced thermal mass and minimal punched windows to reduce unwanted solar gain. The rounded towers will be clad in marine-grade aluminum fitted with solar fins for shade. Demand-controlled ventilation, centralized thermal storage, efficient LEDs and advanced automation controls are expected to reduce site energy demand by 35% as compared to a baseline building.

“Environmental design was a key driver in the design,” said Piers Heath, Head of Environmental Engineering at Foster + Partners. “The morphing form was based on numerous studies and options with the aim of limiting solar exposure. The twisting shading fins were then developed to offer an optimal outer solar shade, along with an inherent reduction in exposed glazing. Coupled with carefully configured systems design, the project has lower energy use and carbon emissions when compared to similar scale projects in the region.”

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Sustainable Brook Hollow homes feature unexpected pops of color

Jeannie and Daryl Losaw, owners of Texas-based Losaw Construction and IBS Homes, have begun construction on their affordable and sustainable homes at Brook Hollow Club Estates in San Marcos, Texas. The Brook Hollow homes will have playful, brightly colored exterior accent walls to give them a touch of extra character in the Texas Hill Country.

The company, which owns and developed the Brook Hollow Club Estates, has been in operation since 2006. During that time, it has focused on sustainable and affordable homes in Central and South Texas, especially near the state’s capital of Austin.

Related: Solar-powered dome in the Texas desert is the perfect place to go off the grid

Surrounded by willow trees on a quarter-acre of land, the group of 25 houses will include shed roof styles with clean lines, multiple windows and front porches. The light gray paint on the outside of the homes is accented by a bright splash of color, giving these structures a unique style in an otherwise contemporary design. There are four models available ranging from 1,400 to 1,700 square feet: the Stanton, the King, the Chavez and the Ginsburg.

Homes cost anywhere from $220,000 to $259,000, but the many green features included in the design will likely help reduce customer costs in the long run. These include an efficient residential air conditioning system taken from a commercial method where air is exchanged and treated. The system, which also helps keep the interior free from outside allergens, is complemented with spray foam insulation.

Aside from this high-performing HVAC design, the Brook Hollow homes use a steel foundation that is more carbon-friendly than concrete, according to the company. These helical pier foundations are easily recycled and moved from place to place if need be, taking up less resources. Additionally, the metal roofing used in construction is also recyclable, highly durable and comes prepared for solar installation.

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A three-handed robot quickly and efficiently sorts recycling

Robots contribute to efficiency and productivity in businesses around the globe daily. So when Matanya Horowitz, founder of AMP Robotics, discovered how inefficient the recycling business had become, he put his company to work to develop a solution. The result is a three-handed robot that views, makes decisions and sorts recycling on the line.

Industry studies have shown a huge amount of recycling waste. Although education and improvements in curbside recycling availability have increased the amount of recycling at the business and consumer levels, a huge portion of that is pulled off the recycling conveyor belt and ends up in the trash anyway. Additionally, the stricter purity specifications from international buyers, such as China, have created more of a waste stream.

Related: Oil and plastic industry spent millions to mislead the public about plastic recycling

“There’s a tremendous amount of value captured in paper, and plastic, and metal, that right now is lost at the landfill” Horowitz explained in a video. “The trouble is that the value of this material is really eroded by the cost of sorting it out in these recycling centers.”

This tedious manual sorting can now be done by a robot that analyzes and sorts 80 plastic, metal and paper items of recycling per minute, which is estimated to be twice the rate of human sorters performing the same task. Plus, accuracy is rated at 99%; the company reported, “We can recognize and recover material as small as a bottlecap and as unique as a Keurig coffee pod or Starbucks cup that may require secondary processing to ensure they are recycled.”

The robot uses the same “seeing” vision as self-driving cars, which allows it to analyze and make decisions about materials as they approach. It then either tells its suction cup ‘hands’ to pick an item up or allows it to float by. The system is also equipped with artificial intelligence that allows it to continuously improve accuracy, including the ability to identify squished or faded containers.

With the improved speed and efficiency, this innovation could dramatically increase the amount of recycled and reused materials. In turn, this means a reduction in waste and carbon emissions at the landfill.

“Globally, more than $200 billion worth of recyclable materials goes unrecovered annually,” Horowitz told Inverse. “A.I.-driven automation enables the efficient recovery of more material, which increases recycling rates and reduces human impact on the environment.”

While the entire system is high-tech and sounds a bit sci-fi, the installation is easily mounted over conveyor belts in as little as 48 hours. Following a weekend installation, recycling centers can implement the robot for $6,000 a month for an estimated cost savings of 70%. However, AMP Robotics recognizes the cost of human job loss and encourages employee retraining programs.

In the spring of 2020, AMP Robotics reported robot installations in more than 20 states, estimating a reduction of half a million tons of greenhouse gases. The company claims to have processed more than one billion individual items in the waste stream over a 12-month period.

Robots are here to stay in nearly every aspect of our lives, from cars to vacuums to food delivery, an idea further supported by the fact that the company entered into a contract with one of the largest waste management companies in the country, Waste Connections, to install 24 robots on recycling lines last year alone.

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