Spotted: Like many other countries, there is a serious shortage of housing in the US due to the growing numbers of people setting up their own households. According to CNN, once multi-family homes are taken into account, the US is short of around 2.3 million homes. At the same time, there is a supply and demand mismatch in many urban centres as builders find it easier to build homes away from city centres, where demand is highest.
Working to fix this is SaaS company Cedar. The company’s platform uses generative algorithms, along with public and privately available data, to generate a broad array of building designs and predict the development yield on parcels of land. The outcome is that builders can know very quickly exactly what to build where in order to maximise income and minimise time to delivery.
Cedar’s focus is on non-institutional, ‘missing middle’ scale projects, which the company argues are essential to creating a more “economically and environmentally sustainable density” in cities. The platform helps developers pinpoint opportunities for builders and developers in places where housing density can be most easily increased.
The company recently announced a $3 million (around €2.7 million) seed funding round, led by Caffeinated Capital, with participation from Tishman Speyer Ventures, and others. Global venture capital firm Antler was also an early (pre-seed) investor.
Sustainable housing is the focus of a wide number of recent innovations spotted by Springwise. These include bio-based, recyclable, 3D-printed homes and houses made from cross-laminated timber.
Spotted: As the world continues to break global temperature records and conditions get drier, wildfires are increasing in frequency, severity, and duration. In 2023 alone, there have been almost 50,000 fires, burning 2.57 million acres of vegetation. Wildfires wreak havoc on communities, environments, and the economy, and one company is working to suppress catastrophic fires through automation.
Rain is the only autonomous technology developed to rapidly suppress wildfires during the first ten minutes of ignition, helping fire agencies more quickly, safely, and effectively contain them before they grow out of control. Its founders, Max and Ephraim, have personal experience with wildfires, having lived in the interior of British Columbia when the Okanagan Mountain Park Firestorm in 2003 caused the largest mass evacuations since WWII.
The company adapts existing military and civil autonomous aircraft with the intelligence to perceive, understand, and suppress wildfires. This technology then enables these aircraft to be prepositioned in remote locations where the risk of fire is high, resulting in increased response times.
The Rain Wildfire Mission Autonomy System uses software that integrates with aircraft autonomy systems and includes components for wildfire mission management, fire perception, path planning, suppression strategy, and suppressant targeting. The system also has infrared and visual spectrum cameras, inertial navigation, GPS and other sensors, and automated suppressant deployment equipment.
Rain plans to collaborate with Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, to demonstrate how an uncrewed BLACK HAWK helicopter with Rain’s Wildfire Mission Autonomy System could respond rapidly to suppress incipient wildfires.
As we witness more wildfires by the year, Springwise has spotted many ways to manage and mitigate its devastation. A Berlin-based startup created a sensor that uses AI to detect ultra-early wildfires, while Mitiga is using physics and AI to assess risk in real-time up to 100 years into the future.
Spotted: Plastic waste is not only a problem in developed nations – it is a major problem globally, including in Africa, where it contaminates freshwater sources and has a big health impact.
Brickify is a Nigerian company working to solve this issue – and tackle homelessness – with one solution. The company collects plastic waste from families and individuals in exchange for cash. The waste is then used to manufacture plastic bricks for use as a construction material.
The bricks are made up of around 90 per cent of plastic waste, along with other materials that give them great strength and fire-resistant properties. The bricks interlock like Lego toys, so they can be used in construction without any additional materials. They are around 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than conventional bricks and will not decompose, so are very long-lasting.
Brickify has received small amounts of funding in the form of awards from Impactionable and the Social Innovations Competition. However, the company has also partnered with several state and national government agencies, corporate and non-profit organisations.
From using recycled plastic as a building material to turning waste plastic into non-toxic resin, tackling plastic waste is now the goal of a huge number of entrepreneurs as spotted by Springwise in the archive.
shail patel imagines an eco-friendly solution to homelessness
Imagining innovative solutions to address complex social issues, Shail Patel takes on artificial intelligence design tool Midjourney to conceptualize a series of modular pods that tackle homelessness. The architect offers a sustainable solution to the issue by activating ignored urban spaces and utilizing modular design to create a safe and dignified environment for the homeless population.
Each of the proposed pods are designed to be self-contained living spaces that provide residences privacy and comfort year-round — integrated with ample natural light, ventilation, and heating and cooling systems, and built out of eco-friendly materials.
series of pods floating above the stream | all images by Shail Patel
ai-generated modular structures for year-round comfort
ArchitectShail Patel designs the modular form of the bridge pods to allow for easy construction and assembly, making it possible to quickly expand the project and offer housing for more individuals in need. In their forms, the pods are built with durable and sustainable materials, ensuring their longevity. The structures are also designed to include energy-efficient features such as solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, ensuring they sit with a reduced carbon footprint.
To ensure the safety of the residents, the sites are envisioned to be fitted with a state-of-the-art security system. They will further be staffed by social workers and healthcare professionals who provide critical support services, such as counseling, job training, and healthcare for rehabilitation. Additionally, Shail Patel imagines that the design could be replicated in other cities and communities, offering a new approach to addressing homelessness across the country.
Shail Patel takes on Midjourney to imagine innovative solutions to complex social issues
each of the proposed pods are designed to be self-contained living spaces for comfort and privacy
modular structures create a safe and dignified environment for the homeless population
the sites are envisioned to be fitted with state-of-the-art security systems
the pods are built with durable and sustainable materials, ensuring their longevity
the project offers a sustainable solution to homelessness by activating ignored urban lots
integrated with ample natural light, ventilation, and heating and cooling systems
project info:
name: Pods Underneath Bridges for Homeless Communities designer:Shail Patel
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
Spotted: As drug-resistant superbugs become increasingly resistant to all known antibiotics, the need to seek alternatives to antibiotic-only therapies becomes more urgent. According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is a top threat to global health, food security, and development, with drug-resistant infections killing millions of people and costing billions of dollars in health-care annually. Now, a new therapy developed by researchers at the University of Toronto is on the way to developing an antibiotic alternative to effectively kill superbugs.
The new therapy—developed by Ruby Sullan and Nesha Andoy—uses a combination of nanoparticles made from polydopamine, an antimicrobial peptide, and low-powered laser light. First, the peptide is used to coat the surfaces of the nanoparticles, which then target and kill bacteria by adhering to its membranes and destabilising them. Secondly, the highly photosensitive nanoparticles are heated up with a low-powered laser light, also heating the bacteria until the microbes are killed.
Polydopamine is “a naturally occurring hormone and neurotransmitter that makes it highly compatible with the human body”. In laboratory tests, the combination of nanoparticles and laser light was able to kill drug-resistant strains of E. coli, a common type of hospital superbug. The results were published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The next step will be to decrease the size of the nanoparticles to make them more suitable for use in living organisms, before eventually testing the therapy in animal models and clinical trials in humans. While the authors note that the therapy doesn’t eliminate bacterial resistance, if successful, this could curb the speed at which antibacterial resistance develops – making it a major breakthrough in the fight against drug-resistant infections.
Antimicrobial resistance is a major concern across the world. Previous innovations tackling the issue spotted by Springwise include a new way to quantify antimicrobial resistance and nano-robots that tackle antimicrobial-resistant infections.
Australian start-up Hoopsy has created a recyclable pregnancy test that is 99 per cent made out of paper, aiming to stop millions of single-use plastic versions ending up in landfill each year.
The Hoopsy “eco pregnancy test” is made almost entirely out of paper, with cardboard packaging that can be recycled in domestic bins. Only the pouch the test comes in is made of soft plastic and needs to be recycled through supermarket collection.
The company aims for its products to replace plastic home pregnancy tests, 12.5 million of which it says are completed each year in the UK before being thrown in the bin.
The Hoopsy test is 99 per cent made out of paper
Entrepreneur Lara Solomon founded Hoopsy after going through IVF and embryo donation procedures that made her realise just how many times people who are trying to conceive test themselves.
She said she used “countless” pregnancy tests in the 14-day period following her embryo transfer. She then went on to develop the product, naming it after the Dutch word for “hope”.
“I feel that when you do a pregnancy test there is a lot of hope – a ‘hope I am’ or a ‘hope I’m not’!” Solomon told Dezeen. “Plus, it also has connotations with jumping through hoops in life, which is sometimes what trying for a baby feels like.”
Only the pouch the test comes in is made of plastic
“On top of this, there’s hope for the future that this product can help reduce plastic waste,” she continued.
Hoopsy has been approved for sale by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency following clinical trials that showed it was over 99 per cent accurate from the day of a person’s expected period.
Like most home pregnancy tests, it works by measuring levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG, commonly known as the pregnancy hormone) in the urine.
The test is taken midstream, which Solomon said most users prefer to strip tests that require prior collection of the urine in a container. To use it, a person holds the end of the test with the Hoopsy logo while placing the other end in their urine stream for three to five seconds.
The test has been approved for sale in the UK
They then place the test on a flat surface and wait five to 10 minutes to read the result. Afterwards, the paper test can be cut in half so the part that’s been urinated on can be put in the bin while the clean portion goes in paper recycling.
Hoopy was developed entirely in-house by Solomon and the manufacturer, but she hopes to work with an external design team for the second iteration of the product, which she aims to make from 100 per cent paper.
The test is taken midstream and is more than 99 per cent accurate
“I’d love to see all plastic tests phased out eventually,” said Solomon. “I think that the pregnant/not pregnant digital screen version instead of two lines is not necessary.”
“The ‘number of weeks’ tests are more tricky to replicate in a non-plastic way, but I am confident we could look at a non-digital version as a way to stop that waste.”
Another single-use plastic testing product that has recently been given a recyclable reimagining is the Covid 19-test. Design agency Morrama came up with a concept design made from moulded paper pulp and NatureFlex film.
Spotted: According to the UN Environmental Programme, the construction industry accounts for around 11 per cent of total global carbon emissions. Now, Dutch startup StoneCycling is hoping to make a dent in this figure with bricks made from recycled construction debris. The company currently makes recycled bricks containing 60 per cent waste, and in the future expects to bring that figure up to 100 per cent.
Currently, most of the company’s bricks are made up of two to three waste streams, although the company works with 60 waste streams overall, including construction waste such as ceramic toilet bowls, roof tiles, and steel. The waste is sorted, ground, moulded, and fired in a kiln, just like traditional bricks. However, while traditional clay bricks are very energy intensive, the recycled waste bricks can be fired at lower temperatures, so their manufacture releases less carbon.
The type of waste used gives different colours and textures to each collection of bricks. For example, some drive-through Starbucks locations in Europe were built with StoneCycling bricks speckled with white; those are made from crushed toilet bowls. The bricks are especially useful in repairs to historic buildings, as the variation in colour and finish makes the bricks appear more historically accurate. The company also makes BioBased tiles, a tile product that is 300 per cent stronger than concrete blocks and creates 95 per cent less CO2.
StoneCycling describes its mission as creating, “A circular world where waste is synonymous with raw material. Cities and their buildings will be constructed of building materials that are made from 100 per cent waste, are 100 per cent recyclable at the end of their life cycle, and absorb more carbon than it takes to create them.” The concept was conceived at the Design Academy Eindhoven in around 2009, when then-student Tom van Soest worked on upcycling waste found in vacant buildings. After graduating, Van Soest founded StoneCycling with his friend Ward Massa, who manages business strategy.
In order to reduce carbon emissions, it is vital to improve the sustainability of the construction and materials sector. With the cement industry alone generating somewhere between four and eight per cent of all global man-made carbon emissions, the use of recycled resources is seen as vital. Springwise has seen this in a wide number of recent innovations, including carbon-negative insulation made from grass and construction materials made from plastic waste.
