The Living Plant

THE LIVING PLANT A building that purifies air and water and at the same time grows food THE LIVING PLANT Ruben Smits - 1324276 [email protected] AR3Ae011 - LAB09 - Msc3 tutors: ir. A. Snijders & ir. T. Homans All rights reserved. No part of this second mentor: dr.ir. A. van Timmeren publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, first published: photocopying, recording or otherwise, without January 15th 2013, Delft, the Netherlands the written permission of Ruben Smits. Table of contents 1. Motivation 5 2. Challenge 7 3. Context 9 4. Research 13 4.1 Abstract 13 4.2 Research approach; methods and techniques 13 4.3 Air treatment with plants 14 4.4 Water treatment with plants 17 4.5 Growing food on waste streams 21 4.6 Conclusions and end products 25 5. List of references 29 3 MOTIVATION “… unlike simple physico-chemical systems that can be ade- blossom to sapling to magnificent old age, the cherry tree’s quately studied using a linear train of thought, biological sys- growth is regenerative. We could say its life cycle is cradle- tems, when viewed at a long enough time scale, are recursive, to-cradle: after each useful life it provides nourishment for … If the loop was not complete, the structures that comprise something new. In a cradle-to-cradle world - a world of natu- it would not exist.” (Passioura, 1999) ral cycles powered by the sun - growth is good, waste nutri- tious, and nature’s diverse responses to place are the source As human beings, like all other animals, we are very depen- of intelligent design.” (McDonough & Braungart, 2001) dent for our survival on the services provided by plants. On the other hand, plants depend on other organisms, like human So, according to McDonough and Braungart we should design beings, for nutrients, seed dispersal and pollination. Plants are buildings that turns solar energy into food, sequesters car- the only organisms that are able to directly use the energy of bon, produces oxygen and filter water. The building should the sun to turn water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates play a role in the local ecosystem and after its life it should and oxygen. The oxygen we breathe and the carbohydrates be a source of nutrients for next generations. The picture of a we either eat directly or feed to our animals. Carbohydrates building that functions like a cherry tree is a very striking im- are also used for a lot of other things like building materials, age. But why do we not look at this from another perspective. fibres, fuel, etc. Besides that, plants purify water by taking out Apparently these plants provide a lot of services to animals nutrients with their roots and by evapotranspiration through (and humans alike). So, why would we not use these services the leaves. Human beings are thus dependent on plants for in buildings? Can we grow plants in buildings to provide the oxygen, sugars and clean water. In the built environment, this building with oxygen, filter the water and make food? And interrelationship is hardly visible. Food is grown outside the if so, what would the consequences be for the design of the city, air is treated mechanically and water is processed in large building? As we are now introducing another living organism purification plants. to design for, we probably have to deal with different demands. Do these demands conflict with the human demands? “How is it possible for industry and nature to fruitfully co- exist? Well, consider the cherry tree. Each spring it produces thousands of blossoms, only a few of which germinate, take root and grow. Who would see cherry blossoms piling up on the ground and think, “How inefficient and wasteful”? The tree’s abundance is useful and safe. After falling to the ground, the blossoms return to the soil and become nutrients for the surrounding environment. Every last particle contributes in some way to the health of a thriving ecosystem. Waste that List of references stays waste does not exist. Instead, waste nourishes; waste McDonough, W., & Braungart, M. (2001). The Extravagant equals food. Gesture: Nature, Design and the Transformation of Human Industry. In J. Schor (Ed.), Sustainable Planet: As a cherry tree grows, it enriches far more than the soil. Solutions for the Twenty-first Century. Boston, Unit- Through photosynthesis it makes food from the sun, provided States of America: Beacon Press. ing nourishment for animals, birds and microorganisms. It se- Passioura, J. (1999). A plant science manifesto. In B. J. Atwell, questers carbon, produces oxygen and filters water. The tree’s Kriedemann, P.E. and Turnbull, C.G.N. (Ed.), Plants in limbs and leaves harbour a great diversity of microbes and Action: Adaptation in Nature, Performance in Culti- insects, all of which play a role within a local system of natu- vation. Melbourne, Australia: Macmillan Education ral cycles. Even in death the tree provides nourishment as it Australia Pty Ltd. decomposes and releases minerals that fuel new life. From 5 CHALLENGE Looking at an urban ‘ecosystem’, one can see that it is very building syndrome (Nelson & Wolverton, 2011). In a natural linear on the local scale. There is a clear distinction between ecosystem however, waste produced in one process is food input and output. When the first cities appeared, food for the for another. In this way resources are produced locally and CO2 citizens was produced in close proximity or even within the waste is processed locally. CLEAN WATER city. With increasing globalization and trade, cities became more and more dependent for their resources from a larger This research explores the possibilities of closing the cycles of area. Modern cities are highly dependent from global sup- water, carbon and nutrients in an urban environment by the plies. All resources are in one way or another imported to the use of plants. At the building systems level there is an input city. Whether it is the rather local supplies of drinking water, of energy (electricity and gas for the building and food for the for example from the dunes and the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal people), drinking water and fresh air; the output consists of in Amsterdam, or the global dependence for food and min- wastewater, waste air (high amounts of CO2, VOCs and PM10) erals. When these resources have been used, they become and solid waste. To start closing the cycles, the neighbouring waste. This waste has to be dealt with locally or exported to buildings’ output will be the input for the design. WASTE WATER a place where it can be processed. So actually all kinds of re- O2 sources are imported to the city, where they are being pro- In this research the Teleport area, a business area around Am- cessed, after which they are being exported again. The pro- sterdam Sloterdijk station, is used as a case study. The before cessing causes a huge stress on the local environment, which mentioned ‘building’s output’ are in this case the output of a FOOD is reflected in high levels of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides group of buildings in the Teleport area. This case study is used and particulate matter in the air. Also the solid waste, if not to show the amount of space needed to deal with the output SOLID WASTE exported, forms a problem for soil and water quality. Not only of these buildings. As it is just a case study of in a more generic the ‘natural environment’ suffers from low air, water and soil research, the basics could also be applied to other scales, for quality, it also has its effects on human beings. Poor indoor air example the scale of a single building or a complete neigh- quality for example, is considered to be the main cause of sick bourhood. closing the cycles of water, air and solid waste in a building using plants FOOD WASTE WATER WASTEWATER MATERIALS POLLUTION ENERGY List of references Nelson, M., & Wolverton, B. C. (2011). Plants + soil/wetland microbes: Food crop systems that also clean air and water. Advances in Space Research, 47(4), 582-590. inputs and outputs of an urban ecosystem 7 CONTEXT The Teleport area around Amsterdam Sloterdijk train station is a very monofunctional office district. Besides offices and premises there are a hotel and a few educational facilities. -Be cause of the lack of housing, shopping and cultural facilities, the area is only lively on very specific moments of the day. Except for rush hours and, to a lesser extent, lunchtime, the area is mainly abandoned. Also during weekends the streets are empty. Being located around the Amsterdam Sloterdijk train station, the area could be very interesting for businesses. This train station is the ninth busiest in the Netherlands when it comes to the amount of travellers with 50,000 people passing every day. There are good connections to Amsterdam Central station (5 minutes) and Schiphol (10 minutes) as well as regu- lar trains to Haarlem (10 minutes), Leiden (30 minutes), the Hague (45 minutes) and Rotterdam (1h05). The area is also well connected to the ring (A10 highway) around Amsterdam. Schiphol is close by as mentioned before and the Westpoort harbour area lies just north of the Teleport area. So all modes of transport, both public and private, on land and water as well as in the air are well represented. The result of this abundance of transport connections as well as the proximity of the harbour is a rather bad air quality, es- pecially around the major highway.

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