Textiles, wood, plastic, glass, paper–these are the kinds of materials we’re used to having in our homes. But there are new experimental materials coming, and they’re made of something that sounds grosser than it is: bacteria.
That’s right–these are tiny microorganisms that you want in your home. At the 2018 Biodesign Challenge Summit, an annual competition between design students working with biological materials, there was a plethora of products (conceptual and otherwise) that aim to bring the benefits of bacteria into your house. From living wallpaper to a microbiome analyzer for the bathroom, these prototypes and concepts show why having more microorganisms in your home isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Biofiltering wallpaper
Created by students at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, Yando is a protoype for air-purifying wallpaper that’s made from cyanobacteria–the bacteria that power photosynethesis in plants. They clean the air of your house by turning carbon dioxide into oxygen, but because they’ve been reengineered, the bacteria pull double duty as air fresheners. They also light up at night, acting like a nightlight or just a living piece of art.
Microbially enhanced flooring
A group of students from the Universidad del Istmo in Guatemala created a new way of thinking about floors that mimic the look of tiles but are actually made of biologically reduced waste from the construction industry. For the project, called Organic Remediation Materials, the team proposes using different colored tiles in patterns that mimic the country’s textiles.
In more commercial or industrial settings, the project MyStep from Arizona State University proposes using mycelium flooring tiles embedded with sensors that aim to transform foot traffic into kinetic energy.
Bacterial cellulose diapers and compost bin
Then, when the diaper–called Sorbit–is full and needs to be thrown out, you could toss it into another student project called Wee Grow. Invented by students at the School for the Art Institute of Chicago, the Wee Pail–which looks just like a trash receptacle–sits in the nursery and speeds up the composting time for biodegradable diapers using algae blooms, which transform the diapers into fertilizer. While the Wee Grow team designed the product to work on the biodegradable diapers that are already on the market, Sorbit’s team points out that even these kinds of diapers have a large environmental impact and often use similar kinds of materials to regular diapers.
Bathroom bacteria sensor
A concept from the Parsons School of Design aims to take some of the more naturally occurring bacteria you’d find in the home–that which is in the toilet–and analyze it to help you better understand your health. The team describes the idea, called Bactoyou, as a “microbial time machine,” where you can understand the history of your microbiome, or your gut bacteria. It works like this: After using the bathroom, users take a pad from a device next to the toilet and use it to wipe their bum. Then, they feed it back into the device, which uses the sample to asses the user’s microbiome.
The concept also entails a service that would allow you to reconstitute your microbiome from a previous point in time–perhaps to aid in digestion–based on the data by taking oral capsules.