Aquaponics based artificial biospheres incl. in architecture

piotrsmolnicki

My name is Piotr Marek Smolnicki. I am a Ph.D. Candidate of Department of Urban Design and Regional Planning at Gdansk University of Technology in Gdansk, Poland, EU.

I would like to present you and ask for you opinions about my newest literature review paper: "Aquaponics Based Artificial Biospheres Included in Architecture". The paper is prepared for review session. Please, feel free to comment any suggestions etc.

Best Regards!

floridafishin

Piotr,

Welcome to the forum. Is there a link that does not require signing up?

piotrsmolnicki

floridafishin wrote:

Piotr,

Welcome to the forum. Is there a link that does not require signing up?

Hi floridafishin,

Due to the fact the paper will be published in Places and Technologies Conference, to be held June 18-19 2015, I can not publish it before official Book of Proceedings. It is the version after two positive blind reviews already. Therefore I decided to create a peer-review private session before the paper will be printed.

The paper main topic is not aquaponics, however it is the important element of the complex idea. Moreover, the idea follows important approaches that were explained in the paper. What a pity I had limit of six pages - reviewers agreed to leave my paper as it is - exceeded to eight pages either/or presented.

Here is the abstract:

Quote:

Technologies may appear faster than spatial planning can afford it. Although applying new technologies solve particular problems, it may also create new ones. Many negative consequences of implementing new technologies are visible after years or decades – they accumulate until the need of solving them. According to The Hannover Principles (McDonough & Braungart 2013) one should, by example not think about reducing but about eliminating negative impacts. Did we learn life-cycle management from this since 1992, and implement it correctly? Can we predict and eliminate negative side effects? Could we add a positive value to the neighbourhood?
In this paper author will scrutinize selected applications of modern and contemporary techniques and technologies influencing shaping of spatial structures and will emphasize their side effects in terms of urban, regional and global “health”.
Author will propose contemporary local intervention and investment possibilities on creating self-sustaining neighbourhoods and buildings. Its background will be a new vision of architecture and spatial structures that include ideas inspired from biosphere, e.g.: retrieving and capturing or circulation of CO2 and nutrients. Author will present a concept based on aquaponics gardening that could be adapted to existing buildings and new designs. The concept design will not only reduce and eliminate emissions but also could have a positive impact on citizens’ health and the whole city and its surrounding.

BTW. I suggest to create a main forum topic focused on Science, Research and Literature Review - I didn't find any

Bob H

Any plans to provide a schematic or suggested blue prints? Any plans to build a model, demo or proof concept?

I for one would like to read your thesis when it is available. Any way you could give a TED presentation? I think they are by invitation only?

floridafishin

So are you basically starting with Biosphere 2. Before the changes in 1994. Then working out the remaining issues they were dealing with?

http://www.biospherics.org/biosphere2/chronology/

piotrsmolnicki

floridafishin wrote:

So are you basically starting with Biosphere 2. Before the changes in 1994. Then working out the remaining issues they were dealing with?

http://www.biospherics.org/biosphere2/chronology/

I am mostly concerned, from cybernetic point of view, about connection between urban spatial structures and global macroeconomics influencing the people's life...
...IIt's a part of the complex topic about how modern technologies dehumanize societies.

At the moment I am figuring out the "multiplexity" of this subject - probably it's to big for Ph.D. thesis, but I will solve the problem

(I hope)

floridafishin

Good luck!

piotrsmolnicki

Bob H wrote:

Any plans to provide a schematic or suggested blue prints? Any plans to build a model, demo or proof concept?

I for one would like to read your thesis when it is available. Any way you could give a TED presentation? I think they are by invitation only?

Thanks Bob for your question,

I tried to answer it in the review session:

Quote:

Blueprints wouldn't be enough to scientifically prove the concept - it should be built and tested for years in different conditions. Moreover, due to the complexity of the system (look at the simplified diagram of Figure 1 at page 6) the structure have to be designed by interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers together with property owner and manager (e.g. mixed-use downtown development).

Regards!

piotrsmolnicki

floridafishin wrote:

So are you basically starting with Biosphere 2. Before the changes in 1994. Then working out the remaining issues they were dealing with?

http://www.biospherics.org/biosphere2/chronology/

I have also commented on your helpfull suggestion in review session - thanks for reminding me the "Biosphere 2" project!

Quote:

"Eden Project" and "Biosphere 2" has laboratory conditions - the concept of the artificial biosphere included in architecture can not and does not have to be independent from the outside conditions. Moreover, it is to provide positive value added to the environment (from neighbourhood to global scale).

Is this answer OK for you?

piotrsmolnicki

Dear Friends,

I have posted my paper about architecture inspired by aquaponics Aquaponics Based Artificial Biosphere Included in Architecture: From Mitigation of Negative Impacts to Positive Added Values of Urban Spatial Structures on Local, Regional and Global Scale here: academia.edu and here: researchgate.net as you wish

I hope its interesting for you or your friends and I'll be glad for your critics.

Best Regards,
Piotr Smolnicki

Damian

I haven't read the paper yet but it seams like you want everyone to have AP in their home. I don't think there was ever a time in human history that %100 of the population has been involved in primary food production. I believe cheap energy is what allows us to operate at the modern ratio of farmers to population. I also believed that is about to change.

piotrsmolnicki

Not everybody with AP but AP food for everybody who needs it in dense communities - similar to the case of Aquaponics in Singapore.

Damian

Well I was expecting a little deeper Congo on the subject. How integrated do you think AP will become into our cities? What do you think it would take for Ap to the primary means of producing fresh food for city dwellers? Is Aquaponics mainstream in Singapore?

Plato

Hi, long time lurker. New poster, hoping to some day have their own system. I am finishing a Ph.D. in Political Science. My work focuses on public opinion in the US South, so public policy is not my forte.

I gave your paper the cursory look through and I had a couple of questions.

First, what does this biosphere look like in practice? Second, if the idea is to merge aquaponics into cities by helping figure out how to scale them? Third and most important to me is the question of policy recommendations. What would you recommend to policy makers and how have similar projects fared?

piotrsmolnicki

The scheme of the biosphere is presented at the end of the paper. The point is that it's not a structure of a building but integration of such a structure with a building and/or a closest neighborhood. In nature there is no waste so if we use our wastes as a goods - we have an artificial biosphere supported only by atmospheric conditions: sunshine, rainfall, wind-blow. There are some teams contacted me who are building some urban AP prototypes. We will se what will happen after all.

Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

Aquaponics based artificial biospheres incl. in architecture

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics