Author Archives: Chi Thukral

This floating habitat concept captures carbon from the air and converts it into electricity!

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Carbon Capture Refuge X is a conceptual habitat that is a dystopian dream but in the best way possible! Yee envisions these to be floating structures that capture carbon from the air and convert it into electricity. It will be a community created for scientists and by scientists that sits within the Earth’s troposphere. Scientists in this habitat are working on environmental research but it will also be a space for refugees.

Each habit will feature solar panels and direct-air-capture fans that extract carbon from the atmosphere to be converted into electrical energy. The energy will run through neon strips within the structure’s floors, walls, and roofs. Yee describes these strips as “veins” designed to circulate utilities throughout the structure. They will also act like “muscles” that elongate to accommodate the system’s growth and open and close depending on the weather to allow air and natural light inside!

Carbon Capture Refuge X is an imaginative vision for a floating, technologically advanced future city. Even though the design seems like something you can only see in movies, it actually showcases achievable technologies such as carbon capture, which will have an important role to play in reversing climate change.

“War-ravaged by political upheaval and nearly rendered uninhabitable by natural disasters, earth’s refugees became ubiquitous. From the suffering and desperation, a manifestation to live with the earth and not just on the earth emerged. Scientists then developed a habitable living infrastructure known as Carbon Capture Refuge X. This living infrastructure simultaneously provided a sustainable way of living while filtering carbon out of the atmosphere,” explains Yee.

The design utilizes Earth’s magnetic field to suspend the habitable orb above the ground and sea, thus creating a floating structure in the troposphere.  Its physical form will be continuously evolving. Drones will be used for the distribution of goods to and between habitats. Far ahead in the future, Yee imagines that the orbs can be connected and plugged into one another.

Carbon Capture Refuge X will also feature rainwater collection which will be stored and filtered by vegetation and then used to supplement hydroponic farming. The vegetation creates a localized microclimate. There will also be a control centre that monitors the comfort, location, and communications of the habitat. The orbs now fill the sky with ecosystems without borders!

Designer: Bless Yee

The post This floating habitat concept captures carbon from the air and converts it into electricity! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This elevated prefab cabin has a buffer zone that helps protect it against harsh climate!

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Think of this cabin as a safehouse for when you are facing harsh weather conditions. Cara R is perched in the Andes Mountains in Southern Chile giving views of the vast parklands and nature reserves. It is the ideal destination to be immersed in nature but the area is also known for its extreme climatic conditions and that is exactly what Cara R’s design aims to guard against – nothing can stand between you and a cozy night at your cabin in the woods!

Felipe Lagos is a Chilean architect of the Santiago–based studio TuCroquis who has previously designed many local homes that take the rapidly changing weather into account. Casa R is an extension of that range, it is a modular holiday cabin residing in the middle of a lush forested site.

On the first floor, there is a woodshed and a chiflonera.” This area between the interiors and exteriors is commonly found in Chilean or Patagonian homes because it helps to regulate the extreme temperature changes that occur in that region. It features a steel frame because stell is both water and fire-resistant!

The 1,033-square-foot cabin also has a buffer zone (locally called chiflonera) which is an area between the interior and the exterior, commonly found in traditional homes there so that it can regular internal temperatures based on the harsh climate.

TuCroquis’ interior designer Ramón Vallejos furnished the cabin with a plywood kitchen, durable furniture from MueblesSur, and washable cushions that can be used both indoors and out. The kitchen area, living/dining spaces and a bathroom are all located on the first floor.

Some of the cabin’s modules have enclosed walls while others are left open for better connection to the outdoors. “The cabin is elevated from the ground and has slopes on the terraces and two floors. The slopes blend with the natural terrain and help reduce costs in foundations. The roof also has a steep slope to protect it from snowfall in the winter,” explains Lagos. The minimal design doesn’t fully express Casa R’s durability but I would love to see it integrate more sustainability or clean energy in its design considering it is all about preserving ecosystems.

Designers:: Felipe Lagos (architecture) and Ramón Vallejos (interior)

The post This elevated prefab cabin has a buffer zone that helps protect it against harsh climate! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This architectural structure is UV-resistant protective shell that operates like a bionic flower!

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This award-winning architecture structure is a concept design that creates a UV-resistant space by closing like a shield. It absorbs ultraviolet rays and unfurls like a bionic flower based on the intensity of the UV index in the area! This protective photosynthesis shell aims to solve the harm caused by excessive ultraviolet radiation in public spaces so that you can still go out while better solutions are being developed.

The earth’s ozone layer can block 97-99% of the ultraviolet light from solar radiation. According to the research of the World Health Organization, if the ultraviolet light exceeds the index of 3 or above without proper shielding or sun protection measures, it will cause sunburn and related diseases.

Due to the increase in ultraviolet radiation caused by the breaking of the greenhouse effect ozone layer in recent years, especially in countries and regions located between 30 degrees north and south latitudes of the equator, this design has been conceptualized for Schuster Park in Queensland, Australia. UV-resistant shielding space uses solar energy, green fluorescent protein, and an ultraviolet module device to create the bionic shell.

Based on the increase and decrease of the UV index intensity, the structure will fold and unfold like a bionic flower – when the ultraviolet light is strong it will become a pavilion to cover, and at night when the ultraviolet rays are weak it becomes the installation art that will glow naturally. The whimsical building envelopes and fiber optic tubes are filled with green fluorescent proteins; the size of the module opening and closing will be adjusted according to the absorption rate of ultraviolet light and can emit light at night. It almost reminds me of the bioluminescent waves!

Designer: Chsiao-Yu Sun and Chien-Hsun Chen

The post This architectural structure is UV-resistant protective shell that operates like a bionic flower! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Japanese A-frame structure looks like a cozy Ghibli movie home got a modern yet minimal makeover!

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Japanese architecture is the epitome of minimalism and warmth, especially when it takes shape as an A-frame cabin. The Japanese culture and lifestyle have many deep-rooted practices about reducing waste, using only what you need, and living with essentials but not necessarily without luxury. All of these elements are seen in Hara House, an A-frame cabin that is all about minimizing your footprint, being efficient, and using as little material as possible. It was designed for a young couple who wanted a new home in a small agricultural village about four hours north of Tokyo that would restore the fading communal connection that they were witnessing.

Hara House is built out of 5-inch square timbers set 6 feet apart. A tent-like white steel rooftop the home mixes private spaces with a semipublic, open-air living and dining area – a stiff, yet giving structure that assimilates all human behaviors. “The estate already contained an assemblage of buildings and farmland that depended on one another. Our design direction was to create a home that revitalized these on-site structures and had the potential to adapt to new functions as the need or mood changed,” explains architect Takayuki Shimada.

The A-frame structure draped over a rectangular interior volume was the solution to create that semi-public space the couple desired. A set of parallel glass doors in the central living/dining room allows air to flow through the home and connect the residents with neighbors passing along the adjacent street. Instead of a traditional self-reliant building, Hara House is a space where workshops, meetings, and events can spill out onto the land and open the home to the village.

Two parallel pitches expose the central living and dining room to the outside air via sliding glass doors. The low openings give the impression of a tent that’s been propped up to reveal what’s going on inside and is reminiscent of older Japanese architecture. An open space on one side of the structure serves as an entrance and an informal gathering spot for the community while the covered, veranda-like spaces on both sides provide shady areas to sit and relax. The heart of Hara House is the large living/dining area that simple radiates warmth!

At one end of the first floor, a small bedroom and a bathroom create a private living area for the family. There is a loft area above that features a cozy workspace. The sleeping zone is on the first floor which has a spacious master bedroom. Interiors feature minimalist shelves for storage and a large pane of glass brightens the space as well as the loft above. Hara House’s high ceiling creates the traditional tent-like vibe, while the raised platform serves as seating as well as additional storage space.

“We started our design by conceptualizing the building as incomplete. The home should invite people from the village to utilize it, thus becoming part of the community. By establishing this type of architecture, with its blank canvas, a space is born that establishes itself as an attraction of interest and activity,” says Shimada. Hara House looks like a house from a Ghibli movie but with a modern makeover that doesn’t strip the magic from a wooden A-frame structure. It is reminiscent of a glowing lantern in the night that welcomes the community into a safe space.

Designer: Takeru Shoji Architects

The post This Japanese A-frame structure looks like a cozy Ghibli movie home got a modern yet minimal makeover! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This modular origami tent built by space architects for the moon unfolds into 750 times it size!

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Studying space exploration is a side hobby of mine so this extreme-weather resistant origami moon habitat is one of my dream homes. SAGA is a Danish architecture studio that designed LUNARK which is a modular shelter that expands and becomes 750 times its original size! It was crucial to design a structure that would be easily transportable (to the moon!), have a zero-waste ecosystem, and could withstand arctic temperatures and meteor showers – LUNARK does it all, in fact, it was taken out on a test run in Greeland by the architects themselves!

SAGA has one mission – make outer space a little cozier for future human inhabitants. The LUNARK habitat shows what can happen when the architect steps back and allows the extreme environment on the Moon and the high arctic to mold a habitat around human beings. LUNARK’s form was inspired by the patterns seen in a budding leaf as it unfolds and origami. It unfolds from a tight bud to a large ovoid shape with a rigid carbon fiber shell. Its exterior is tough as a tank while its interior is a cozy home with a sense of Nordic “hygge”.

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The main exterior of the habitat is made from a black glossy carbon fiber shell. The carbon-fiber structure’s sandwiched panels with a foam core for extra insulation. Carbon fiber is ideal because it’s lightweight – which is crucial for transport and unfolding – yet strong. The panels are connected by a white foldable composite rubber and the main load-bearing structure is an aluminum frame.

Starting from the size of a small car, the carbon fiber shell can unfold to 750 times its size. Inside, solar-powered circadian panels mimic the light cycles on Earth, aiming to improve astronauts’ sleep patterns and general well-being. It is designed to counteract monotony, claustrophobia, and psychological stress.

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With an inner volume of 17.2 sqm, LUNARK is designed to shelter two people at once. It is powered by a 1000 Ah solar-powered battery. It aspires to be a zero-waste shelter, leaving as little impact as possible on the environment. Inside the unfolding pod, there is space for a 3D printer (for printing spare parts if needed), stowage for batteries and water, and a living algae farm. LUNARK also has a series of in-built digital software systems, including a weather simulator to help break up the day-to-day monotony, and an algae reactor, to nurture and monitor a source of nutrition.

The main principle behind LUNARK is its expanding volume, as the structure expands 750% after transport while testing it was a great success as it was easy to unfold and strong enough to withstand the extreme environment. “The habitat worked beyond all expectations. The unfolding was possible by just two people and no heavy machinery – and in the extreme cold of the arctic. Furthermore, the interior design and spatial organization worked well. We are not trained professional astronauts, our tolerance is much lower. So we needed a much more pleasant living environment. We wanted to create a home, not a survival machine – and the habitat really ended up feeling like home,” adds Aristotelis.

Earlier in 2020, SAGA developed a prototype for LUNARK using the principles of Japanese origami folding with biomimicry. The two architects, Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sørensen, then went on a two-month mission to experience extreme isolation in northern Greenland where they tested LUNARK and its technologies themselves for future moon missions while enduring -30°c, hurricane winds, and hungry polar bears!

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In the two months spent in extreme isolation in Greenland, SAGA collected data about the performance of the unfolding origami structure and the circadian light panels that form the artificial sky inside the habitat. The duo also collected data about their psychological wellbeing, the impact of isolation, and how to deal with conflicts under extreme conditions which will help them make LUNARK even better for real missions.

“We wanted to make the most realistic simulation mission. If we as architects want to test the effect of architectural countermeasures in space we also need to simulate a realistic amount of stress on the participants (in our case ourselves). The cold arctic was the best bet for that. At the same time, the arctic has the most similar lighting conditions to the moon. It’s far away, remote and isolated so the experiment conditions forced our design to be easy to deploy,” said Aristotelis.

Having lived for months in conditions that resemble those in outer space, the two young architects collected a significant amount of data which they will analyze with a focus on human well-being and psychology. “The future looks great, our design worked better than expected which puts us on a solid trajectory to build in outer space,” Aristotelis concludes. SAGA is not only focused on making brilliant space architecture but is also putting the mental health of the astronauts at the core of their design which makes them stand out among all others on our planet!

Designer: SAGA Space Architects

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The post This modular origami tent built by space architects for the moon unfolds into 750 times it size! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This floating farm turns salty seawater into nutrients for agriculture & improves marine environment!

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A Japanese start-up has designed this floating marine farm called Green Ocean using agricultural technology that cultivates seawater as a direct nutrient source! The innovative structure combines salt-resistant technology and sea-friendly architecture to the world a potential solution for the climate change-induced rising sea level problem which comes with heavy salt damage. It harvests rainwater, improves the quality of the water around it, helps with food production while saving water and being a sustainable architectural structure.

Sea level rise is getting progressively worse due to climate change which affects agriculture heavily – it means less land to farm on and also damage to coastal land because of excessive salt. N-ark has developed Green Ocean in partnership with Cultivera which is an agrotechnology R&D company that aims to build the prototype of the floating marine farm by 2022. Seawater agriculture is a special cultivation method that absorbs water and nutrients in the ground and air by mixing and neutralizing alkaline seawater and acidic rainwater. As a result, a huge variety of vegetables can be grown by utilizing the minerals and nutrients contained in seawater!

Green Ocean is a floating, solar-powered, salt-resistant greenhouse constructed with thinned wood and carbon joints. Once it is out on the water, the marine farm will create two new green areas – one will be a food production space that floats on the surface and uses salty agricultural technology and the second will be a layer of algae that will improve the underwater environment. It has a distinctive angular roof that helps to collect rainwater which is then mixed with seawater and used as fertilizer for the plants. Cold seawater is also used for air conditioning within the farms. “By creating a cyclical system environment, Green Ocean plays the role of an adhesive plaster of the Earth,” explains the team.

The basic technology behind seawater agriculture is ‘moisture culture’ which allows cultivation under humidity control. With this method, about 15 cm of the surface layer of natural soil can be reproduced with a special fiber of approximately 5 mm, and vegetables with fortified sugar content and vitamins can be grown by evaporating water with the special fiber by applying water depletion stress to plants. Moisture culture uses one-tenth of the water that is needed in conventional irrigated farming methods and can be applied even in areas where water is not abundant making it a sustainable way to farm at scale.

Designer: N-Ark

The post This floating farm turns salty seawater into nutrients for agriculture & improves marine environment! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This 3D printed urban reef is constructed from mycelium to increase biodiversity in cities!

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Mycelium is a natural material taking over the sustainable design world one industry at a time! A Netherlands-based company is hopping on that train – they are experimenting with mycelium and computational design to create a series of 3D-printed urban reefs that will stimulate water circularity and biodiversity. In simpler terms, your concrete jungle where dreams are made of will be more jungle and less concrete so more living organisms can thrive!

Dutch designer duo Pierre Oskam and Max Latour came up with this innovative solution to make cities more biodiverse. It involves using natural materials to create structural ecosystems that can be integrated within existing environmental elements (eg. fountains). A 3D printer is used to create complex geometrical designs with porous materials like ceramics and composites (made from coffee grounds and mycelium). The moisture in the air is able to pass through and create the perfect environment for various fungi to grow thus bringing the structures to life!

“The most feasible option we are working with is ceramics, but since baking it requires a lot of energy we are investigating more sustainable alternatives,” says Latour. The studio is also experimenting with materials made from coffee and algae. At present, the team has developed two concept products as a result of their research, first in the form of the “Rain Reef” rain collector with an undulating shape that increases the contact area of the water and the potential hatching surface for vegetation.

“It is 3D printed with a porous material (made from a mixture of seeds, coffee grounds and mycelium), which can get saturated with the collected rainwater, making it accessible to vegetation growing on the outside,” explains Latour. “The intention is to develop a printable material which is porous, durable, sustainable and bio-receptive.”

The second product is the “Zoo Reef”, which Urban Reef intends as a substitute for fountains in cities. “There is a lot of potential for biodiversity stimulation around urban fountains,” says Oskam. “We propose a complex labyrinth of spaces which are all interconnected. By differentiation in sizes, orientation regarding sun, wind and rain, varieties of microclimates would develop.”

“Rather than determining top-down which organisms should live where, a range of potential habitats is generated.” They might be early in the research and development phase but Latour and Oskam’s Urban Reef project could have real-world applicators in the future. As an idea, it’s not so dissimilar from a living wall, except in this case the choice of materials and the structural design promotes their integration within cities without human intervention.

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“At Urban Reef we consider the city as a potential habitat to organisms, not exclusively humans,” the duo explains. “We position ourselves as human within the natural environment deviating from the modernist view of the human transcending nature. From that perspective, we aim to gain a profound knowledge of natural processes to both integrate those in our design methods as well as design with ecologies in mind.”

Designer: Pierre Oskam and Max Latour

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This DIY wooden bicycle is an open source design that makes you think about sustainable living!

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This bicycle made of plywood was created with an intent to get more people to focus on sustainability. The open source design is called ‘Openbike’ and despite the obvious problems that come with a bike made from plywood, it is still an affordable and lightweight alternative to those who want to live on a budget but are also eco-conscious. You can download the files to build your own bike here!

“This is not about bicycles! Open your eyes, this is about you, about your attitude towards the future. Do you think that the pollution of the cities will disappear by itself? Do you think traffic jams are caused by others?” reads the Openbike website which makes the mission statement of the design very clear – they’re not claiming to offer the durability or a thief-proof bike but rather shift your perspective on affordability and sustainability.

The multidisciplinary Spanish design studio wants to reduce carbon emissions in cities by empowering people with technology which is why they made Openbike so that the files can be downloaded and fabricated by anyone in the world. They have been prototyping designs since 2017 and the final version is can be used by anyone, incorporates storage racks to transport goods, and employs a simple construction from widely available materials like off-the-shelf plywood.

Architects Raquel Ares and Iñaki Albistur said, “It is a manifesto on sustainable urbanism, urban transport, distributed manufacturing, shared knowledge, the community, and the responsible use of resources, that materializes in the design of a non-polluting urban transport, the bicycle, that can be manufactured by its own use within the city where it is going to be used.”

To fabricate the bike, you have to download the drawings from their website. Then you can take the drawings to a local digital fabrication workshop where the CNC machine cuts the body of the bicycle from plywood and uses 3D printing for elements such as the saddle, front hub, and hand grips which could also be recycled from old bikes depending on the resources available.

The fabrication files for Openbike are licensed under creative commons 4.0, allowing the designs to be improved, modified, manufactured, and shared again by anyone across the world making it a truly accessible design that only gets better. Based on these principles of open design, Arquimaña encourages further development based on the use of local resources but with global techniques and tools adapted – this way each bike is a little unique, localized but also could be scaled on a global level based on characteristics.

The aim is to empower citizens as a transforming agent, putting technology at their service and prioritizing local production with local resources, which generates active and productive cities, looking to the future from an ecological perspective, trying to reduce carbon emissions to a minimum. The project is part of the global fab city initiative, which challenges cities to produce everything they consume by 2054!

Openbike hopes to offer citizens the necessary methods for manufacturing a non-polluting means of urban transport, the bicycle, by themselves. The project isn’t really about the bike itself, though, but rather the idea that people should think about how they can contribute to a better, more sustainable future.

Designer: Arquimaña

A hidden induction cooking unit is the best part of this modern, tech-savvy kitchen!

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This kitchen’s secret sauce is a flexible, hidden, induction cooktop – and it is flexible! Lapitech, an Italian company, created a cooking system that could be fully concealed under a modern sintered stone kitchen counter! It is activated by a technological cooking mat and the innovative system features an electrothermal part developed in collaboration with the University of Padua. Lapitec Chef was brought to life after years of research and is patented.

The induction cooking system is seamless and very easy to operate. All you have to do is place the Lapitec Chef silicone mat on your worktop to activate the touch controls and switch on the system. The mat is key, without it the induction unit and controls will be inactive and the worktop is like any other kitchen counter only distinguished only by small engravings that align with the mat’s controls.

Lapitec Chef allows for easy cleaning and storage so the counter can be used for other activities like preparing food, plating dishes and hosting social occasions. Interestingly, Lapitec is a 100% sintered stone and it is also non-porous, non-absorbent as well as resistant to chemicals which makes it ideal for both indoor and outdoor kitchens. You can choose to have either two or four cooking rings for your induction system.

The one-of-its-kind cooking mat looks like a normal silicone mat but comes equipped with magnetic sensors and a hidden coil. Lapitec Chef is compatible with all induction cookware and the best part is that it is also dishwasher safe! For additional safety,  it can be configured to work in bridge and child lock mode. You can choose from different finishes to match the induction system with your kitchen’s aesthetic while integrating the technical potential of sintered stone to elevate your cooking game!

Designer: Lapitec

This angular passive house is built on a tilt in New Zealand and leans into the wind!

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This modern house in New Zealand is a passive structure that won an award from the New Zealand Institute of Architects for its sense of fun and how the design carries through from outside to inside – it makes you feel like you are on a holiday but in a home that you can stay in all year round. The Long Grass House harmoniously blends affordability, sustainability, and liveability!

The use of inexpensive plywood in the interior and steel cladding on the exterior gives it an evergreen yet modern aesthetic with contrast. The interiors are engaging, with plenty of space, natural light, and material warmth. The design approach has been focused on including what is really needed in order to produce what is sufficient; positively reducing waste of both space and construction materials.

It showcases a simple plan for a medium-sized house with a spacious te garage and an interesting layout of the bathroom, laundry, and entrance. The garage and main structure complement each other and almost look like two perfectly angled Lego blocks! The jury that presented the award noted how the Long Grass House is a great example 0f how to use inexpensive materials and get real value out of them.

The angled ends are supposed to appear to be leaning into the prevailing wind, but it’s really a clever energy-saving trick to create overhangs that shade the windows from the northern sun. The architect notes: “The form of the building is compact giving a low form factor, and with its compactness comes low energy demand. Passive House Energy calculations were used to drive design decisions – using current climate data and predicted future climate data.”

A panoramic skylight runs near the length of the building and connects to a vertical window and you can see it from the inside in the kitchen. This light is minimal but eye-catching detail in the house which is designed with thrifty detailing, colourful trimmings, and simple geometric shapes. The wooden stairway leads to a loft above the bathroom and laundry.

“Every material and surface here is durable and will take some hard knocks—something that was central to all material decisions, including cladding. We wanted to ensure that every product we specified would stand the test of time in this harsh environment and be suitable for the family to live in with its changing needs for years to come,” said the team.

The house gets a lot of attention for the slopes that lean into the wind, but the real appreciation should go towards the simplicity and economy of the materials used throughout. Steel siding is one of the most durable and affordable materials for the exterior. While plywood is perfect for long-lasting interiors without increasing costs and maintaining a timeless look. The compact structure helps ensure low energy demand and Passive House Energy calculations were used to drive many design decisions using current and future (predicted) climate data. Long Grass House is perfect for a modern, eco-conscious family looking for a forever home on a budget!

Designer: Rafe Maclean