Spotted: In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) has been a crucial breakthrough – both for human couples who want children, and for farmers who use it to manage the make-up of their herds. Despite the many medical advances that have moved fertility treatments forward, rates of success are still low. Fertility tech company Pera Labs says that IVF fails 70 per cent of the time in humans and 60 per cent of the time in farm animals. The company’s solution is to make it easier to find and select the highest quality sperm for a fertilisation.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to cut down on the length of time it takes to analyse sperm in the laboratory shortens the amount of time individuals, couples, and farmers have to wait for each round of treatment or service. The company’s proprietary algorithm SPERMAN works with images as well as video, a development that greatly increases the accuracy of sperm quality analyses. The technology also works with eggs. Because eggs are much larger than sperm, it takes only seconds for the AI to gather enough data to grade an egg’s health.
For farmers, the lab offers a sex-sorting-as-a-service option to help maintain herd health and optimum numbers of each gender. For people, the technology helps identify as early as possible before the embryo stage the possibility of any dangerous genetic mutations. And potentially, if fertility treatments speed up slightly, costs may drop, enabling more people to access treatments that are currently prohibitively expensive.
Innovations focusing on fertility are relatively rare, with Springwise spotting a Tinder-style app that helps people choose a sperm donor and a femtech platform that personalises care for conditions that often affect infertility.
Finnish companies Polar Night Energy and Vatajankoski have built the world’s first operational “sand battery”, which provides a low-cost and low-emissions way to store renewable energy.
The battery, which stores heat within a tank of sand, is installed at energy company Vatajankoski’s power plant in the town of Kankaanpää, where it is plugged into the local district heating network, servicing around 10,000 people.
The company behind the technology, Polar Night Energy, says it helps to solve one of the key obstacles in the transition to full renewable energy: how to store it for use during times when the sun isn’t shining or wind isn’t blowing, and particularly for use in the wintertime when demand is high.
The Kankaanpää “sand battery” holds 100 tonnes of hot sand
“Solar and wind power is basically already really competitive in terms of energy price per produced energy unit,” Polar Night Energy co-founder and chief technology officer Markku Ylönen told Dezeen.
“The only problem with them is that you can’t really choose when it’s produced.”
He said that while lithium batteries are well suited for vehicles, “if we’re talking about gigawatt hours or terawatt hours of excess electricity, it’s not technically feasible to try to cover that with lithium batteries, and also the costs will be immense”.
“Even even if we dug out all the lithium in the world, we couldn’t build batteries big enough to accommodate all the fluctuation in renewable energy production,” Ylönen added.
The battery stores excess renewable energy as heat that can later be sent to homes and businesses
Polar Night Energy’s sand battery stores heat for use weeks or even months later. It works by converting the captured renewable electricity into hot air by using an industrial version of a standard resistive heating element, then directing the hot air into the sand.
The heat transfers from the air to the sand, which ends up at temperatures of around 500 to 600 degrees Celsius and retains that heat well. To unlock it for use, the process is reversed and the hot air funnelled into a heating system used for homes or industry.
According to Ylönen, the process is low-cost – sand is inexpensive so the main costs are related to equipment and construction of the steel storage tank.
It is also low-impact, with the only substantial greenhouse gas emissions being embodied emissions from construction and the transport of sand, which should come from a location close to the battery site.
And although there is a sand shortage related to the material’s use in concrete and glass, Ylönen says the battery does not require this kind of fine-grain, high-quality sand.
Instead, they can use sand rejected by the construction industry, or even alternative “sand-like materials”, of which Polar Night Energy already has several contenders.
The battery can be made with any type of sand from any location
The Kankaanpää battery is four metres in diameter, seven metres high and contains 100 tonnes of sand, but Polar Night Energy envisions future batteries being 20 metres across and 10 metres high.
This should give the battery one gigawatt hour of storage capacity, which is equivalent to one million kilowatt hours (kWh). The average UK home uses 1,000 kWh of gas and 240 kWh of electricity per month.
Several sand batteries of a standardised size could be placed around larger cities to service larger populations.
The sand battery would most likely only be used to provide heat and not electricity due to the inefficiency of the conversion process, but according to Ylönen, the world’s heating needs are great enough to justify having separate storage systems.
“The heating sector is something like one quarter or one third of the emissions of the world,” said Ylönen. “Along with the transportation and food industries, it’s among the largest sectors in terms of global warming.”
The urgency of transitioning to renewable energy has increased with the Ukraine war, which has led to spiralling energy costs and has revealed Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas.
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Dezeen has teamed up with Neff to commission London studio Emil Eve Architects to design a small contemporary kitchen using the German brand’s space-saving appliances, including an oven with a fully retractable oven door.
To coincide with the 20th anniversary of the brand’s Slide & Hide oven, which features an oven door that slides away under the appliance, Neff and Dezeen teamed up with Emil Eve Architects to develop a design for a modern kitchen for city homes where space is limited.
The Slide & Hide oven features a door that can “disappear” under the appliance to gain easy access to food
The design aims to balance smart and functional design that saves space in an imaginative and contemporary style.
“Smart and functional design doesn’t have to mean boring. We love to bring an element of fun to cooking with our appliances,” said Neff.
“Space in city centres comes at a cost, so when that space is limited, design and functionality is essential to love the home you live in.”
The kitchen was designed to optimise space in smaller city homes
Emil Eve Architects developed the design with the vision of creating a kitchen space for preparing and sharing food, where cooking and eating is a social experience to leisurely spend time.
The guiding principle behind the design was to combine efficiency and ergonomics and to maximise space for smaller city homes. The design features generous shelving for storage and displays, using products that have the ability to seamlessly slide everything away – even the appliances.
“We have greatly enjoyed the challenge of working with Neff to develop a kitchen design for a city centre home, where space is at a premium, but design does not need to be,” said the studio.
The kitchen features ample shelving for storage and displays and appliances that can be compacted away
Neff describes its Slide & Hide oven as the “only oven with a fully retracting door” that not only frees up space in the kitchen, but also enables users to get up close to the food to add last-minute additions and allows users to safely retrieve dishes without risk of getting burns.
The built-in oven features a sliding door designed to “disappear” in one swift motion via a rotating handle. It comes in stainless steel or graphite grey with the option of adding steam functions, eco-clean, touch screen displays or be linked with Neff Home Connect app, which enables users to control home appliances remotely via voice commands.
“It’s more than just a technical object, it has a sort of playful component, and it’s simply fun to use,” said Neff vice president of design Ralf Grobleben.
The design centres around a kitchen island with easily accessible storage
The kitchen features a central island as a contemporary take on a traditional farmhouse kitchen table. The island is equipped with a series of drawers and open shelves where everything is easily accessible.
The traditional kitchen garden is replaced with a richly planted balcony, designed to be a small but productive space elevated above the city.
The architects combined high-quality materials including vibrant stained solid timber fronts that contrast with exposed powder-coated steel and stainless steel work surfaces.
Founded in 1877, Neff develops and produces built-in home appliances for modern kitchens. Its products range from ovens, hobs, extractor hoods to refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers and coffee machines.
Dezeen x Neff
This article was written by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Neff. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
Spotted: As any pet owner knows, animals can quickly become members of the family. They provide us with companionship, love, and support. And for those who are homeless, pets are especially important, providing a range of health benefits in addition to physical protection. However, these animals are less likely to receive the care that they need to remain healthy.
The ElleVet Project is a US-wide mobile relief effort providing free care to pets in vulnerable communities. Multiple veterinarians travel around the country to treat pets of people who are homeless in order to improve the health and well-being of both the pets and their owners.
Out of a 38-foot RV, known as the ElleVan, the vets offer vaccinations as well as treatment. Vaccinations are crucial as they allow pets and owners to stay in animal-friendly homeless shelters where non-vaccinated animals are banned.
If the pet needs emergency care, the ElleVet Project contacts and pays local veterinary surgeons to perform the surgery and provide the necessary care. Within the first two months of launching, the project treated over 1,200 pets.
Among other pet-friendly innovations we have spotted in recent times include a digital diagnosis and treatment tool for pets that tackles vet shortages and dog leads made from old climbing rope.
US company Ubiquitous Energy has invented a thin coating that turns windows into transparent solar panels, providing other ways to harvest renewable energy in buildings beyond rooftop panels.
Ubiquitous Energy describes its technology as being the only transparent photovoltaic glass coating that is “visibly indistinguishable” from traditional windows.
Any surface could become a solar panel
The company was founded in 2011 by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Michigan State University (MSU), who engineered a transparent solar panel by allowing the visible spectrum of light to pass through and only absorbing ultraviolet and near-infrared light to convert to electricity.
Standard solar panels look black because they absorb the full spectrum of light, and because of their appearance, their deployment has been typically limited to roofs, walls and large rural solar farms.
With Ubiquitous Energy’s coating, which it calls UE Power, potentially any surface can be turned into a photovoltaic panel.
Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent solar windows (above) are installed at Michigan State University (top)
“The mission is to turn all these everyday surfaces around us into essentially renewable energy generators,” Ubiquitous Energy VP of Strategy Veeral Hardev told Dezeen.
“Windows is where we’re focused first, but beyond that, think about vehicles, transportation in general, portable consumer electronics devices, sustainable farming like greenhouses – these are all things that see sunlight to some degree,” he continued.
“Why not improve them so that they can actually generate renewable energy themselves without changing their appearance?”
Hardev said the company’s modelling shows that with broad adoption of the technology to the point that in 30 years the coating is as standard as low-emissivity (or low-E) coatings on windows are now, it could offset 10 per cent of global carbon emissions.
All components are completely transparent
The solar window works in the same way as any other solar panel. It contains cells of a semiconductor material that create an electric charge in response to sunlight.
Wiring hidden in the window frames connects it to the building’s energy management system to direct power to where it’s needed in the building or to store it in a battery.
The coating is made using light-absorbing dyes
The innovation with Ubiquitous Energy is that all of its materials are transparent to the human eye, including the semiconducting compounds, which take the form of light-absorbing dyes.
To achieve its thinness – the coating is about one micrometre thick, or about 80 to 100 times thinner than a human hair – it is made with nanomaterials, similar to those used in display technologies.
The semiconductor layers are deposited onto glass using vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) – a standard coating process using in the window industry – and Ubiquitous Energy plans to license its technology to existing glass manufacturers so that they can incorporate it into their product offerings.
Transparent panels only half as efficient
Ubiquitous Energy estimates the windows would provide about 30 per cent of a building’s electricity needs, depending on factors such as geographical location, elevation and tree cover, and imagine them being used in conjunction with rooftop solar panels to reduce the building’s reliance on the electrical grid.
Because some light is allowed to pass through, the transparent solar panel is only about half as powerful as a typical rooftop solar panel of the same size. But Hardev claims their potential scale of deployment compensates for this loss of efficiency.
“A few years ago, we reported the highest-ever performance for a transparent solar device, with near 10 per cent efficiency,” said Hardev. “Although there are options that are 20 per cent efficient today, we’re making this conscious trade-off of being transparent so we can put it in places where you can’t put traditional solar panels.”
Cities would theoretically be able to produce substantial amounts of solar power locally without changing in appearance, reducing the need for land for large solar power plants.
First factory to open in 2024
Applied in other ways, the coating could be used to make mobile phones that don’t need to be recharged, more energy-efficient cars and self-powering greenhouses, Hardev says.
Ubiquitous Energy has completed a number of demonstration projects, including at Michigan State University and at the Boulder Commons apartment community in Colorado.
The company is working to expand the coating’s applications beyond windows
The company plans to open its first factories producing floor-to-ceiling solar windows in 2024. It also hopes to grow its partnerships, which have so far included window companies Asahi, Pilkington and Andersen.
Past aesthetic solutions to the issue of intrusive solar panels have come from designer Marjan van Aubel, who created colourful skylights reminiscent of stained glass, and Tesla, which released camouflaged Solar Roof tiles.
Architects have also been creatively integrating the technology into buildings, with designs such as BIG and Heatherwick Studio’s “dragonscale solar skin” on the roof of Google’s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley and Shigeru Ban’s sail-like moving wall of photovoltaics at La Seine Musical near Paris.
This article is part of Dezeen’s Solar Revolution series, which explores the varied and exciting possible uses of solar energy and how humans can fully harness the incredible power of the sun.
A zigzagging form gives extra privacy to the medical staff living in Thai studio Plan Architect’s nurse dormitory apartment block at Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok.
Comprising 523 rooms, the building, which has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2022, is formed of 26 floors with diamond-shaped openings at their centres. Plan Architect designed the apartment block to be a restful home for nurses working in the hospital, which is run by the Thai Red Cross Society.
The Bangkok apartment block was designed as a peaceful residence for nurses at a nearby hospital
“The main aim was to create the most comfortable residence for the nurses at the hospital,” project architect Jittinun Jithpratuck told Dezeen.
In response to the dense arrangement of the city, Plan Architect aimed to design a building that offers the residents plenty of privacy.
The apartments are arranged across 26 floors
“With the dense high-rise buildings in Bangkok, we aimed to provide enough space for each room to have its own privacy without directly facing other buildings and to allow natural ventilation to get through the rooms,” Jithpratuck continued.
To ensure the rooms didn’t directly face the surrounding high rises, the studio gave the apartment block a zigzagging form.
Breaks in the white facade highlight sections of artificial timber
On each floor, the apartments are arranged along two corridors separated by a central opening that lets more natural light enter the corridors and facilitates natural ventilation from the floor to the roof.
Most rooms are separated into two parts by a sliding door, with one half acting as the bedroom and the other containing a dining area, pantry and bathroom. The bedrooms are intended to sleep two people, with the beds on opposite sides of the room for privacy.
Balconies placed at an angle extend from each room, forming snaking rows along the structure.
“Since the dormitory is close to other nearby buildings, we designed the balcony to have a slanted angle,” said the studio.
“This avoids a direct sightline to other buildings and allows more sunlight into the area, making it suitable for planting trees and drying clothes.”
The bedrooms feature two beds placed on opposite ends of the room
Aluminium railing and perforated aluminium sheets provide further privacy and shading on the balconies.
“This facade and balcony composition create the pattern of light and shadow that reflects the simple systematic design of the building while concealing the various lifestyles of the users,” the studio continued.
Aluminium railing and perforated sheets cast shadows across the balconies
Additional facilities in the block include a library, public dining room, co-working space, and laundry room.
An enclosed courtyard is formed in the space between the apartment block and three of the neighbouring buildings. Separated from the busy hospital, this courtyard offers green space and a peaceful area for relaxation for the nurses.
“The nurses feel it’s a lot better than where they lived before because it can give them privacy even when living with each other, and the natural cross ventilation really works including the zoning in the room that makes it easier to work while the other occupant needs to rest,” the studio said.
Plan Architect’s project has been shortlisted in the housing project category of Dezeen Awards 2022. Other projects shortlisted in the category include a colourful apartment block in Melbourne and a green tower in Amsterdam.
Fashion house Balenciaga has opened a couture store with smoked-glass-panelled walls in the same building as its original couture salon in Paris.
The store is located beneath Balenciaga‘s historic atelier at 10 Avenue George V, which was recently renovated to exactly replicate the interior of the original couture salon that was first opened in 1937.
The interior of the store was clad in tinted glass
“The newly renovated space at 10 Avenue George V is dedicated to preserving Balenciaga’s heritage in its original couture location, first opened in 1937, as well as creating a couture for today,” said the brand.
The design of the store beneath the couture salon was created by long-time Balenciaga collaborator Sub, a Berlin-based architecture studio that was founded by Niklas Bildstein Zaar and Andrea Faraguna.
The store is located in the same building as Balenciaga’s original couture salon
The boutique’s exterior is marked by oversized serif Balenciaga signage, a nod to Balenciaga’s 20th-century branding that also forms a distinction from the narrow, sans serif typeface that currently identifies the brand.
Beneath the signage, four arched openings frame swooping curtains that are given a golden hue by the brown-tinted glazing.
Grey curtains zone spaces throughout the store
The interior of the couture store echoes Balenciaga’s raw architecture concept, which was applied internationally across the interior of its stores, but this edition has been clad in panels of tinted glass instead of concrete.
Between the unfinished but glass-clad walls, ash-hued curtains conceal carpeted areas while wrinkled-leather ottomans were placed throughout the two-storey store.
Wrought iron balustrades and a curving marble staircase, with glass panelling slotted around it, hint at the building’s history and the former decor and interior scheme of the atelier above.
“The concept of the couture store is a gateway to couture, which remains a very closed universe, especially for new generations,” said Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit.
Remnants of the store’s history were incorporated into the design
“In this new store, products, made-to-measure services and retail excellence are a reinvention of the Balenciaga client experience,” said Charbit.
“It is exciting to be able to present this level of craft, creativity and made-in-France savoir-faire in our historical address.”
Balenciaga’s couture atelier is located above the store
Metal shelving was decorated with couture items, ranging from artisanal to technological, from the brand’s most recent Autumn Winter 2022 couture show.
Items on display include its speaker bag, which was created in collaboration with Danish audio brand, Bang & Olufsen.
Earlier in 2022, Balenciaga wrapped its Mount Street store in London in a bright pink faux fur to celebrate its Le Cagole bag.
The clothes we wear have an enormous impact on the planet. The entire fashion supply chain is estimated to contribute 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and fashion is the second most water-intensive industry on earth, consuming roughly 79 billion cubic metres of water per year. Fashion also faces social problems such as modern slavery, due to its long supply chains over which brands do not have full control.
These challenges have caused some to question whether fashion can ever be sustainable. But every individual person can make a difference through their choices, and consumers are increasingly acting as a driver of change. According to one survey, 57 per cent of consumers have made significant changes to their lifestyles to lessen their environmental impact. And innovators are finding ingenious solutions that meet their changing demands.
Springwise has spotted fashion innovations that not only improve the sustainability of fashion in a narrow sense, but contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more broadly. Fashion, like many industries, needs to change (and fast) if these goals are to be met. But innovators are inspiring hope that the necessary changes are not only possible but beneficial.
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
One of the most important SDGs for the fashion industry is SDG 12, which calls for the decoupling of economic growth from increasing resource consumption. Fashion uses 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources each year, and only 12 per cent of the material used in clothing is currently recycled. There is therefore a clear need to move towards more circular practices in the industry, which will require the input of both consumers and manufacturers. Innovators are facilitating this process.
On the manufacturer’s side, Italian luxury fabric company Manteco is transforming pre-consumer scraps, post-consumer garments and, industrial waste into soft, durable and sustainably coloured yarns and fabrics. Meanwhile, B2B matchmaking platform Uptrade pairs those wishing to buy fabric with textile manufacturers and fashion labels that have excess fabric in their inventories. On the consumer side, fashion brand Samsøe Samsøe is stitching ‘Resell Tags’ into its garments. These contain a QR code that, when scanned, automatically generates a resale advert for Facebook and Instagram marketplaces.
SDG 14: Life below water
You may not immediately draw a link between your favourite coat and the sea’s riches, but several innovators are exploring how fashion can be used as a tool to promote marine biodiversity. Meanwhile, others are working to minimise the impact of fashion waste on life beneath the waves.
Florida-based startup Inversa is making an alternative leather out of lionfish – an invasive species that threatens the health of Florida’s coral reefs. Elsewhere, Canada’s Lezé the Label is making comfortable officewear from another threat to marine eco-systems: discarded fishing nets. Ocean plastic is yet another problem with one study calculating that there are 24 trillion microplastic particles in the world’s seas. It is therefore important that fashion brands avoid plastic where they can, and German startup LOVR has developed a completely plastic-free alternative to animal leather.
SDG 10: Reduced inequality
Efforts to increase the positive impact of fashion are not limited to the materials and processes used to make clothing and accessories. Fashion can also be an effective tool for tackling social issues.
SDG 10 promotes social, economic, and political inclusion regardless of factors such as race and ethnicity, and several fashion innovators are working towards this goal. UK-based Yard + Parish is promoting black-owned luxury fashion brands through curated offerings of fashion, beauty, wellness, and homeware products. And, in the US, e-commerce platform Black Owned Everything is both a marketplace and media culture hub that empowers a diverse community of creators.
SDG 5: Gender equality
The power of fashion to promote social change also extends to gender equality. SDG 5 stresses the need to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. To this end, Danish startup Shift has developed connected jewellery that doubles as a personal safety device.
Economic empowerment of women is another focus of SDG 5. Social enterprise Alsama Studio employs female refugee artisans to embroider old clothes, turning them into exciting new looks. The income the women earn through their studio work is often the only funds available to their families. And in Malaysia, accessory brand Earth Heir works closely with refugees and local artisans to help develop their businesses. Women make up the majority of the artisans worldwide, as well as 60-70 per cent of people living in poverty.
SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals
Partnerships between the public and private sector, large and small businesses, and academic institutions, NGOs, and corporations are crucial for delivering on all of the SDGs, as is highlighted in SDG 17. And the fashion industry provides some excellent examples of partnership in action.
Ice cream brand Magnum is is at the start of a new long-term partnership focused on circularity with the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour. The partnership’s goal is to use cocoa waste products as a reliable, circular source of material for the fashion industry. Another project brings together 12 partners including research institutes, agricultural associations, SMEs, and large enterprises to turn food waste into bioplastic for cosmetics. And, in New Zealand, a group of like-minded organisation is exploring ways to pool resources in order to provide local cotton recycling technologies.
Words: Matthew Hempstead
Looking for inspiration on sustainability? Why not visit our SDG hub page for more articles on green innovation that matters.
Following the recent news about an avocado alternative called Ecovado, here is a roundup of 10 innovations that aim to reduce the carbon impact of the food industry and our diets.
The global food system, including the actions that take food from farm to plate such as transportation and production, is estimated to contribute 30 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, with over half of those a result of livestock agriculture.
In the past few years, designers have come up with numerous ideas for reducing food-related emissions as part of the global effort to slow climate change.
These innovations include developing alternatives to meat and other energy and resource-intensive foods, as well as creating more sustainable food production processes.
Read on for 10 designs that seek to decarbonise the food industry:
Ecovado by Arina Shokouhi
Central Saint Martins graduate Arina Shokouhi invented an avocado alternative named Ecovado, designed to break people away from purchasing the resource-intensive imported food.
“Avocados are one of the most unsustainable crops to export because of their delicate, easy-to-bruise nature, and the plantation-style monoculture farms required to meet the global demand for avocados are driving the deforestation of some of the most diverse landscapes in the world,” said Shokouhi.
The alternative contains a green, creamy, avocado-like foodstuff that is made from a combination of ingredients local to its country. It is packaged in a replica avocado skin formed from wax.
Find out more about Ecovado ›
Air Meat by Air Protein
Californian startup Air Protein has created a meat alternative titled Air Meat, made from microbes that turn recycled carbon dioxide into protein. The product aims to replicate the flavour and texture of real meat products.
With beef generating 70 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions for every kilogram produced, Air Meat was developed in an attempt to tackle the negative climate impact of the agricultural industry.
Find out more about Air Meat ›
Solein by Solar Foods
Solein is a protein-rich food made from electricity, air and water laced with bacteria. It was created by food-tech startup Solar Foods in collaboration with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Lappeenranta University of Technology.
The food does not require land or large quantities of water to produce, both of which contribute significantly to the agricultural industry’s emissions, with the company claiming it has potential to “remove the climate impact of food systems on the planet”.
“Solein does not reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere directly, but the indirect effect is that we need about one-tenth of the land compared to photosynthesis,” Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka explained in an interview last year with Dezeen.
Find out more about Solein ›
Spira by Rob Russell
Rob Russell, a 2019 product design graduate of the University of Leeds, designed this countertop Spira device that can harvest microalgae daily. The device can produce two tablespoons of fresh, nutrient-dense spirulina each day.
This small amount constitutes a recommended daily serving, which the designer suggests adding to sauces, smoothies or salads.
“Home-cultivated spirulina combats the four contributors of food-related greenhouse-gas emissions – production, transport, cooking and waste disposal,” said Russell.
Find out more about Spira ›
Lab-grown meat by Eat Just
In 2020, the Singapore Food Agency deemed Eat Just’s lab-grown, cultured chicken safe for human consumption. The US startup’s product is known as a clean meat, meaning it does not consist of dead animals but instead uses cells harvested from live animals that are grown and cultured into meat.
East Just explained that the cultured chicken has an “extremely low and significantly cleaner” microbiological content when compared to real chicken, which can contain bacteria from the gut, skin and feet of the poultry.
Find out more about Eat Just’s lab-grown meat ›
Dissolvable ramen packaging by Holly Grounds
Product design student Holly Grounds developed an edible, flavourless biofilm that is seasoned with herbs and flavourings to replace the multiple plastic sachets which typically accompany packets of instant noodles.
The dissolvable ramen packaging is made from a handful of ingredients including potato starch, glycerin and water. The biofilm seals the noodles and prevents the food from becoming stale but dissolves in less than a minute when put into contact with water.
Find out more about Grounds’ dissolvable ramen packaging ›
Strøm by Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempre
Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres of studio Doppelgänger designed a collection of carbon water filters that are developed without fossil fuels and from their own kitchen waste.
The four-item range includes a substitute for Brita filter cartridges, purifying sticks and a self-cleaning pitcher and carafe. Traditional water filters are comprised of activated carbon within plastic cartridges typically derived from non-renewable energy sources.
“While carbon filtration immobilises harmful contaminants, the plastic cartridge’s only function is to hold the activated carbon,” Lempres told Dezeen. “Meanwhile, sourcing, manufacturing and injection-moulding the polypropylene are the largest contributors to the filter’s impact.”
Find out more about Strøm ›
Zero by PriestmanGoode
Multi-disciplinary design practice PriestmanGoode developed a concept for an incentive-based food delivery system that could encourage consumers to use and return bioplastic containers to takeaway restaurants.
The concept was created to discourage the use of single-use plastic for fast food boxes and bags. If put into widespread production, the containers and bag would be constructed from sustainable materials such as cocoa bean shells, mycelium and pineapple husks.
The boxes would have a bento-style stacking system, removing the need for individual lids as boxes would be placed on top of the other.
Find out more about Zero ›
An Egg Without a Chicken by Annie Larkins
Around 36 million eggs are eaten per day in the UK alone, produced by highly intensive farming processes.
Central Saint Martins graduate Annie Larkins developed an unusually shaped alternative to chicken eggs made from pea protein, salt and algae-derived acid.
The designer altered the shape of the egg alternative, creating elongated and cubic forms, but looked to replicate the food’s white, yolk and shell, all of which were created from plant-based ingredients.
“Human desire to consume meat and animal products runs deep in cultures globally, and having an alternative that allows for an easy switch to plant-based products seems like a good thing to me,” said Larkins.
Find out more about An Egg Without a Chicken ›
3D-printed food products by Elzelinde van Doleweerd
Elzelinde van Doleweerd collaborated with a China-based technology company to develop food products 3D-printed from leftover food. The innovation was a result of Van Doleweerd’s final project during her industrial design degree at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The designer began exploring 3D-printed food after learning that one-third of food produced worldwide is wasted. She used mashed, ground and sieved fruit peels, bread and rice to create the mixture, which is then printed to create 2D geometric patterns and 3D shapes.
Find out more about Van Doleweerd’s 3D-printed food products ›
How can architecture be a force for good in our ever-changing world? During Future Fest, we’re pose this question to some of the world’s best architects. We’re hosting daily virtual talks from September 12th to 30th, which are 100% free to attend. Check out the full schedule!
Load the landing page for NEOM, and you’ll be met with a highly polished promo video of a young woman flying unsupported through a cityscape of towering buildings, flowing waterways and a lush abundance of mature plant life on every façade and elevated walkway. Having been dubbed the next step in humanity’s evolution, it is no surprise that about $500 billion worth of funding has already been poured into developing the online presence of the new city-state NEOM. While the marketing team at NEOM isn’t quite suggesting they can give you the powers of personal flight, they’re not far off.
The ultra glossy website unabashedly announces New Wonders for The World, where exceptional renders, CGI video content and bold statements appear to be the only way to communicate. “A destination like no other on earth” that runs on “100% renewable energy” and is built upon “an unspoilt virgin landscape.” The development claims to set new global standards in “architectural excellence,” “regenerative wellness programs,” “transformative experiences,” “premium luxury,” “protected heritage sites,” “thriving wildlife reserves,” “advanced technology observatory,” and “exclusive hotel, residences and events.” On the surface, it all sounds quite promising. Yet beneath the uplifting music, fantastical visualizations and extortionate production budgets, there are grounds for skepticism surrounding the world’s newest mega-city.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, also known as MBS, announced the proposal for his city at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 24, 2017. His aim, he said, is to help drive Saudi away from its dependency on finance from the crude oil industry, which has historically been the country’s largest export but is undoubtedly playing a part in the climate change that is adversely affecting areas across the Middle East.
Born from two words, “Neo,” the Ancient Greek for “New” and “M” from Mustaqbal, the Arabic for “Future,” on its completion NEOM is estimated to cover an area that is roughly the size of Belgium in the Tabuk Province of northwestern Saudi Arabia. MBS defines NEOM as a revolution that will transform Saudi Arabia’s economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that will change lives — not just the people of Saudi, but everyone in the world. According to the ruler, the city will attract foreign investment and diversify the country by attracting global industry, tourism and shipping alongside groundbreaking technology all based in the under-utilized desert.
Significant parts of the project were initially set to be completed by 2020, with a further expansion completed by 2025. But, five years into its development, the project is severely behind schedule and facing further issues at every junction.
While the dominant narrative is that NEOM is being built on “virgin, untouched land,” the area is actually part of the Red Sea coastline, which has long been one of Saudi Arabia’s most neglected territories. There are indeed several towns that exist there. Many of its people are part of a nomadic tribe known as the Huwaitat, who are now settled in the region where Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt meet. There was no place for them in the plans for NEOM, and in early 2020 thousands of people were told that they would be evicted. Unsurprisingly, efforts to relocate the indigenous residents have been turbulent.
While the forceful removal of indigenous people may to many seem a huge roadblock, it is just the tip of the iceberg insofar as the project is predicated on the use of advanced technology that does not currently exist. We’re talking artificial moons, a robot workforce, glow-in-the-dark beaches and flying cars as just some of the examples of what has been envisioned by the sci-fi enthusiast prince.
In January 2021, MBS introduced NEOM’s most far-fetched component yet, a “civilizational revolution” called THE LINE: a linear city 170 kilometers long that is claimed will generate zero carbon emissions. The 200-meter-wide walled city seeks to host one million residents that would occupy a car-free surface layer sandwiched between two mirrored walls that slice through the desert landscape. The unique city promises to house all essential amenities less than a five-minute walk away for each of its residents. While extensive utility corridors and high-speed trains will be hidden underground along with infrastructure for moving freight. A swimmable waterway as an alternative to roads has also been proposed.
However, once again, despite the surface proposal appearing as innovative, on deeper inspection, it is estimated that the construction of the eco-city of the future would produce upwards of 1.8 billion tonnes of embodied carbon dioxide, equivalent to more than four years of the UK’s total emissions. Many critics suggest that this would counteract much of the proposed green initiatives.
An additional concern surrounding THE LINE is the suggestion that with the help of artificial intelligence, NEOM plans to use data as a currency for facilities such as power, waste, water, healthcare, transport and security. Officials revealed that data would also be collected from the residents’ smartphones, homes, facial recognition cameras and multiple other sensors throughout the city, claiming that this information will be used to help the more efficiently improve the lives of its inhabitants. Meanwhile, critics of the project suggest that Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record and current use of espionage and surveillance technology for spying on its citizens is a significant and worrying problem that would essentially create a surveillance state in turn limiting the number of people who would want to reside there.
Nonetheless, seeing a rare chance to shape a metropolis from the ground up has drawn many architects and designers into the folds of NEOM with an opportunity to test futuristic concepts and challenge the typical parameters of urban design. This is not to mention the immense pay packages offered to experts in the field, which are often upwards of $700,000, with many additional benefits added to sweeten the deal.
Despite this, the area known as TROJENA has shown money isn’t everything. Andrew Wirth, CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, was hired to work on an extensive proposal for the project: a ski resort in the desert. In reality, the idea is slightly less absurd than it sounds, the mountainous area temperatures are regularly below freezing, and the area sits at roughly 10 degrees lower than the rest of the development. But upon starting work, much like reports for THE LINE, Wirth soon grew alarmed by the project’s environmental implications. The resort plans call for an artificial lake, which requires blowing up large portions of the landscape. During their initial works, the company claimed it couldn’t even estimate the build cost and that the fantasy and reality were intertwined in an utterly unachievable way. In a move many others have since replicated, the company resigned in August 2020, a mere five months into the job.
OXAGON. Where people, industries and technology will come together in harmony with nature to create a better future. #OXAGON#NEOMpic.twitter.com/sIl1xd1Qi7
The latest proposal on the list for MBS’s mega city is the water-bound OXAGON. The industrial city is planned to support NEOM with a vast octagon-shaped city built partly on pontoon-like structures in the Red Sea. On its completion, it would be the largest floating structure in the world. Outlined to be a place where people, industries, and technology come together, focusing on state-of-the-art industry and the circular economy. The plans include factories for the design, development and manufacture of the products of the future where according to the website “innovators and entrepreneurs can accelerate ideas from labs to market,” and it will be “a city where people come together to live, work and play – in thriving communities.” With an aim to be called home by 900,00 people who will live alongside a fully automated port that will offer central connectivity to global markets physically and digitally. Neom’s chief executive, Nadhmi al-Nasr, has said the port city would “welcome its first manufacturing tenants at the beginning of 2022”. However, earlier this year, satellite images of the desert expanse show little more than rows of staff housing.
So far, the chaotic trajectory of NEOM suggests that MBS’s urban dream may never be delivered. Yet, as we speak, NEOM staff continue to work to deliver THE LINE and TROJENA. Early construction has started on the mountain resort requiring the removal of more than 20 million tons of rock—three times the weight of Hoover Dam. At OXAGON, workers dig the foundations of a hydrogen plant while an almost finished data center is said to be near completion. Al-Nasr, CEO of NEOM, claims even NEOM’s legal and political framework is coming to a conclusion. An entity called the NEOM Authority will govern the region with its head appointed by the Saudi king — almost certainly MBS, once he succeeds his 86-year-old father, King Salman.
To NEOM’s backers, the hypermodern city is a bold initiative, not a ridiculous one, that sets a high bar for imagining what the future of cities should look like. On the other hand, many critics continue to ask if MBS’s utopian vision is simply that — a vision and an unrealistic dream that will never be realized. Is NEOM the ambition of a man with a slight god complex and unending stream of financial faculty that can’t take no for an answer? Or the future of humanity?
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