Could an emergency shelter also provide its users with food? Could we make furniture you can eat? Could you merge furniture and farming into one device?
It’s questions like these that set biodesign studio Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology) apart from other design collaboratives. Instead of looking at design as finding a solution to solve one problem, their structures and furniture pieces try to tackle many issues facing the planet all at once. Need a structure to house refugees as well as find them a reliable source for protein? Why not build them a home that also acts as a cricket farm?
While many of their designs may look like fantasies pulled from the pages of a classic sci-fi novel, the structures behind them are rooted in science. They study natural materials at scales reaching the cellular level to create architecture and furniture that is good not just for the user, but for the planet. Current projects include the Fab Tree Hab Living House, a house made completely out of plants; handbags made from lab-grown meat tissue; a personal food-growing sphere called The Urban Farm Pod; and a furniture set made from fungus.
To learn more about Terreform ONE and see more videos like the one above, read their interview with Tech Times here.
