MacBlog

Adib and I took to the whiteboard to begin designing the structure for ITP WC. What do you get when you combine two visual people to tackle over-sized water bottles? See for yourself:

One of the things we addressed was the need for a new racking system. Since we are going to be orienting the bottles in a different way we needed to come up with a design that was a lot better looking and could accommodate new bottles if we need to expand the system. We decided to only have one bottle per each segment of the aquaponic system but in the event we need more plants or fish we can stack another bottle on top of the structure. We also wanted to utilize gravity as much as possible for the circulation of the water. There will be only one pump in the system to help with circulation. (For now anyway.)

We also went in to the men’s bathroom to re-stack the bottles and their crates to get a sense of how this would all come together.

RUST – The Radical Urban Sustainability Training – an intensive weekend workshop of skills for building ecologically resilient communities in today’s cities.

Aquaponics system. Hard to believe it but beneath all of that duck weed (in larger tank) there are a dozen or so tilapia.

Having spent the first few weeks of our Designing Living Systems class talking about the different sustainable design techniques and technologies it was time to see it in action. That’s what RUST was for me. A get your hands dirty introduction on how to live a regenerative lifestyle. From duck weed to chickens, we covered a lot of ground … literally. The workshop took place in the heart of downtown Albany, N.Y. and operated out of the Albany Free School. From there we toured the neighborhood and visited the different sites that hosted everything from the goats to aquaponics.

The R.U.S.T. course is designed for anyone interested in learning specialized techniques for small-scale sustainable design in cities. Topics and hands-on projects included:

• Low-tech bioremediation (cleaning contaminated soils using plants, fungi and bacteria)
• Rainwater harvesting
• Aquaculture: ponds, plants, fish, algae
• Constructed wetlands/greywater
• Autonomous technologies:wind turbines & passive solar
• Worm composting and soldier flies
• Raised bed gardening and soil alchemy
• City chickens and micro-livestock
• Struggles for land and gentrification
• Brownfield restoration
• Biofuels: methane digesters, wood gas and veggie oil vehicles
• Mycoscaping:edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation
• Energy depletion and climate justice
• Sustainable and efficient wood burning

Hot compost bin.

Click here for more photos from the R.U.S.T. workshop.

Project team: Macaulay Campbell • Adib Dada • Julio Terra

Water bottles in the mens bathroom to be used for ITPWC

Project description: A bathroom intervention that brings awareness to water waste and air quality issues in our public spaces. We are designing a natural system that captures and remediates grey water from the ITP bathroom sink, feeds it into a plant-based aquaponic air remediation system, and uses the remaining water for the toilet flushing system. Water and air quality information will be communicated to bathroom users so that they continue to choose this bathroom over other options available on the ITP bathroom.

The ITP WC project can be broken down into a few major components. Each component will have a different lead, though everyone will be expected to contribute across all aspects of the project. (1) water remediation system, led by Adib; (2) aquaponic air remediation system, led by Macaulay; (3) sensor systems (air quality sensors and water usage sensors), led by Julio Terra; (4) data visualization component, led by Julio Terra.

To bring this project to life we have developed a multi-phase implementation plan. We are currently in the research and needs assessment phase, which will last for another 2-weeks. During this phase we will research how to build each of the system components listed above, select the plants for the aquaponics system, request access to appropriate resources from ITP, and identify appropriate sensors.

Next, we will begin the prototyping phase. During this phase we will create initial versions of the sensor circuits and install them in the bathroom to create initial reading benchmarks; we will also build working versions of the water and air remediation systems to test that they work properly independently. Once we have built the initial prototypes we will adjust our design to address issues that arise. This phase will last for 3-weeks.

The last phase will be the integration phase. At this point we will integrate the systems, run final tests, and make any final adjustments to get things to work properly. This final phase will last about 2- to 3-weeks.

It is important to note that we may not be able to implement all aspects of this concept. However, we hope that we can implement enough elements to be able to create a compelling proof of concept. Here is a more detailed overview of the work we are carrying out in the current phase.