NexLoop™ Urban Window Pod (May 2016)

Biomimicry Global Design Challenge (BGDC) - Ideas Phase

Top 7 (advanced to BGDC Launchpad accelerator phase)

Collaborators: Anamarija Frankic, Alexa Nicolas, Stephanie Newcomb, Dale Clifford

Framing the Issue: Rapidly increasing population and urbanization coupled with significant loss of arable land due to erosion or pollution has led to an unprecedented challenge of sustainable food supply for urban populations. City inhabitants have turned to the hyper-localization of food production for alternatives to industrial food sources. However, the agricultural sector consumes about 70% of renewable freshwater resources globally. Therefore, introducing sustainable alternatives for urban water supply and irrigation can have a scalar impact on the food cycle.

The Challenge: How might we reduce water consumption and wastewater in urban agricultural processes while increasing the potential for local food production?

Scale: The first concept of NexLoop, for the Ideas Phase of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge 2017, was a retrofit of multistory residential building facades to promote small-scale, personalized food production. We saw this as an opportunity to design at the scale of a window: a modular intervention, which takes advantage of vertical rainwater collection to provide a direct water source for sustainable hydroponic food production in the home.

Function: The process of using water from the outside of a building to grow food on the inside requires the integration of multiple functions and a symbiotic relationship between all parts. Organisms and patterns in nature are intrinsically adept at solving multi-functional problems, minimizing waste, and facilitating mutual cooperation.

Biologized Questions:

• How does nature capture, store, and distribute water?

• How does nature use similar properties to perform multiple functions?