Aquaponics is up for funding on Kickstarter until December 15. If successfully funded, the tanks will reach consumers in February 2013. If you'd like to donate and be one of the first people to receive a tank, click here.
Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez left their jobs in favor of starting a project to help people grow their own food. After successfully launching their mushroom kit for a scant $5,000, Arora and Velez hope to continue to get more people to grow their own herbs and spices—this time with a fully sustainable fish tank. Arora and Velez posted their project on Kickstarter with the goal to raise $100,000 to fund manufacturing.
Five "net pods" float above the tank in a small pool of water. Fish create waste that the tank then siphons up into the planters to provide fertilizer. A classic form of "upcycling," this means you don't have to clean the fish tank.
Aside from being a great example of recycling materials, the design of the Aquaponics kit is remarkable. If funded, the plan is to make the final product out of a combination of plastic, acrylic, and glass. Arora and Velez worked with a designer to come up with the form, function, and shape of the tank, ultimately finishing with a compact design.
"We went into this with no preconceptions of shape, size, or materials," Nikhil says. "We had just fallen in love with this concept of aquaponics at the largest scale—visiting big commercial farms—and had this passion for making that amazing technology and science accessible to more people."
The final product is small enough to sit on a kitchen counter without being an obstacle. At three gallons, the tank is ideal for one three-inch-long fish or a few smaller one-inch fish. The founders recommend goldfish, betas, and other easy to care for species.
Ease of use is a driving force behind the design: not only do you not have to clean the tank, the only needed fertilizer comes directly from the fish's waste and the only water is pumped from the tank—everything about it is self-regulated. The tank comes in at roughly 10" wide, by 11" high, by 6" deep—smaller than your average toaster oven.
Designing the tank brought about a few extra challenges, Arora says. "We explored various shapes—eventually landing on a pot shape icon to represent the innovation here. The geometry is more cubic than cylindrical, the most efficient use of space." The net pods on top can handle just about any small, leafy herb or spice—even flowers. Placed near a window with direct sunlight year-round, the plants can take care of themselves without the tank becoming too hot since the pods on top shelter it.
Another perk is the connection it can have with children. It can teach them the importance of fresh food as well as taking care of the fish—feeding the fish is just about the only real responsibility here. "Our goal was to center around the idea of beauty through simplicity and ease of use. To make a system so intuitive even kids could understand it right away," Arora says.
Like a scene out of Tron, this is a rare look between the server racks. The multitude of tiny fans on the rear end of the servers channels heat into a cooling recirculation system.
At the Hamina, Finland, Google center, sprawling rows of servers line the floor of what was formerly a paper mill. The open space allowed for dozens of rows of servers.
Here in the cooling plant, the frigid waters from the nearby Gulf of Finland enter the cooling ecosystem of the data center. Seawater is the main resource for keeping the plant cool rather than other means. The methodical arrangement provides an organized flow and a pretty appearance.
Google keeps things color coordinated better than anyone. Reminiscent of their colorful search logo, these pipes help keep the Hamina run on 100-percent unprocessed water from the Gulf. Instead of worrying about the cleanliness for drinking, Google figured it'd be easier to adapt to the resources around them.
We've all fawned over the comfortable accouterments of the Google headquarters before. Even the data centers are upscale. At Hamina, this bare conference table with a slatted-wood ceiling sits near the employee sauna area.
The Mayes County, Oklahoma, center displays the uniformity that Google has come to symbolize. By connecting the same color wire to the same switch on each server rack, there's no confusion in case something goes wrong. For an organized soul, the sorted bliss these Ethernet cables provide is second to none.
Again, organization is king. It's easy to let a mess of wires distract from the overall function of the server. But these miles of cable are bundled together neatly to monitor the controls for the cooling system at the Berkeley County, South Carolina, Center.
Each server is outfitted with a very bright, very environmentally friendly LED light that will last much longer than a CFL bulb. The shifting color spectrums are a signal to anyone walking between them about what each server's status is. It's reminiscent of a system you might see in NORAD.
Here's another display of the colorful water pipes, this time in Douglas County, Georgia. The extensive network of pipes winds its way throughout the centers in a choreographed chaos. In the foreground: the "G-Bike," which workers use to move around the enormous centers.
Motion sensors are calibrated to detect anything moving about in the server rooms. When left vacant, they'll shut off the overhead lights to save on electricity. In the dark, the lights of the servers are left to glow smoothly through the night.
Inside the network rooms is a robust system of fiber optic routers that allow workers to communicate with each other within the colorful server stacks. That connection’s speed would leave your typical home connection in the dust as they run along the bright yellow trays near the ceiling.
To facilitate a lower operating temperature, Google hung transparent, plastic curtains between the servers and the walking areas. Inside, they'll pump cold air through the vents while allowing the outside air to stay warm.
To keep their loyal users and their information safe and sound, it's Google's policy to round up old drives and destroy them on-site. Thousands of gigabytes can pile up, like a microscopic metropolis.
Not all of the interesting things happen inside of the data centers, though. The economical use of water for cooling creates a soothing mountain mist when release through the steam pipes on top of the center in The Dalles, Oregon.
The multitudes of cooling tanks create the image of a small army, waiting to deploy the thousands of gallons of water at hand for cooling. These tanks in Belgium are constantly on hand should they need more cooling water.
The schematics for the One-SQM-House are available at zero cost online if you fill out an informational ballot that asks what you plan to do with the One-SQM-House. The idea is that if people can get it for free, they'll have the creative license to do what they like with it and push the envelope. Le-Mentzel also intermittently leads workshops that guide people through the construction process.
Yes, One-SQM-House is tiny, but it's already being used in some parts of Europe. The open source nature, and more people building it, has helped to improve the concept. Download plans for the house here and visit hartzivmoebel.de for more details.
Aside from a bathroom, the most basic form of living is possible within the One-SQM-House, which has sparked a discussion. "There are a lot of very intelligent people who discuss now, with the help of the plans, if we really need an XXL life. I say, ‘build more, buy less,’" Le-Mentzel argues.
Being a tiny enclosure, Le-Mentzel’s design contradicts the somewhat pervasive American housing culture that says "the bigger, the better." That fact is not lost on Le-Mentzel. "Most of people in America hate me because with this idea, I attack the core of U.S. identity: living large," he says.
"I love things that can change their function simply by just skipping the perspective," Le-Mentzel says. "People should do it more often."
While most of the house is straightforward, the spatial requirements for a bed necessitated a bit of spatial cleverness. When it comes time to sleep, One-SQM-House must be flipped onto its side.
Le-Mentzel spent a lot of time on airplanes and drew inspiration from their space-efficient design. The evolution of aircraft cabins helped him put the space into context.
The struggle forced Le-Mentzel to think differently and his experiences helped him to craft this one-square-meter capsule, which includes a desk, window, and sleeping area. "I put it on wheels so you can make the whole planet your home," Le-Mentzel says.
Originally from Laos, Van Bo Le-Mentzel came to Germany as a refugee and faced one of the most common problems that transplants encounter—finding a home. "Everybody should have their own house, with a window and a door. And it should stand wherever you want," Le-Mentzel says.
Rather than relying on mechanical filters, like many household air purifiers do, Filtration Block uses miniature greenhouses. At around 12" x 12", the modules are large enough to house a plant that will produce clean air, but small enough to remain portable.
Driven by a project at the Responsive Architecture at Daniel research lab at the University of Toronto, graduate Elaine Tong (class of 2011) designed the modular Filtration Block to purify air using house plants.
Tong's prompt to build a responsive and self-sustaining system yielded this geometrically structured air purifier.
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