Toward the Final Design Concept — LOOP

Additional Slide 1

Figure A: The design team hosted a “charette” event that allowed the team to explore a number of concepts and ideas related to the challenge at hand. Participants were invited from outside the design team in order to add fresh perspectives to the emerging concepts. Authors' image.

Figure B: The team attended an interdisciplinary critique in order to gather feedback about the evolving concept — emulating biological strategies to break down food waste and upcyling it into useable material. Authors' image.

Figure C: Based on the feedback gained during the interdisciplinary critique, the design team further refined the emerging prototype to function on three levels: form, process, and system. Waste would be processed by community members in devices that emulated various functions in nature (breaking down food, separating elements, grinding substances to powder). The processed material would then be used as filament in a specialized 3D printer for the production of objects (as desired by market visitors). Authors' image.

Figure D: The team developed product ideas that could also be custom-designed on location. Authors' image.

Figure E: By envisioning the product concept within the overall context of the open air markets in the Provence, France, the design team finalized the design as a system that exists within and contributes to the local ecosystem. Authors' image.

Additional Slide 2

Figure F, top left: Depicting the materials to work with during the design charette. The design team invited a number of outside participants to join in a day-long collaborative design event in order to ideate potential concepts to address the design challenge. Author’s image.

Figure G, middle left: Designers review the design challenge criteria and introduce the guest designers to the Biomimicry Life’s Principles that were to guide the emerging design. Author’s image.

Figure H, bottom left: Designers work in small sub-teams, developing their concepts to address the challenge at hand. Author’s image.

Figure I, top right: Each sub-team builds a prototype of their concept using the materials provided at the beginning of the charette. Author’s image.

Additional Slide 3

Figure J, top: The team presents the concept developed during the design charette at an interdisciplinary critique. Authors' image.

Figure K, bottom left: Early sketches based on feedback received during the interdisciplinary critique. Authors' illustration.

Figure L, bottom right: The team reframes the concept based on the feed-back received during the critique. The team considers using food waste as a building material. Authors' illustration.

Additional Slide 4

Figure M, top: Concept for a “Pupcycle” that would be available to children in the marketplace. The pupcycle’s internal mechanics would emulate the hyena’s jaw to break down waste bones. Authors' illustration.

Figure N, bottom left: Wind powered playgrounds in the marketplace would separate bones from meat waste using mechanics inspired by the mackerel shark’s digestive system. Authors' illustration.

Figure O, bottom right: Shark-themed paddleboats are available in markets with nearby bodies of water and emulate biological strategies in order to break down food waste. Authors' illustration.

Additional Slide 5

Figure P, top: Concepts for potential products that could be 3D printed using the bone-based bioplastic. A series of wine stoppers could come with educational materials about the local ecosystem. Authors' illustration.

Figure Q, bottom left: Additional concepts. Authors' illustration.

Figure R, bottom right: A concept for the 3D printing system that would use the bioplastic to print custom products. Authors' illustration.

Loop System Diagram

Meat and fish waste produced by market vendors is collected.

Through a series of devices the organic waste is separated into meat and bones, and the bones are ground into bone dust to be used in the next step. The devices are operated mechanically and by wind power when wind is available. The emulation from nature’s genius concerns the process of food being broken down by enzymes in the shark’s stomach, and by the action of the hyena’s jaw crushing bones.

Emulating the building strategies of the paper wasp (mixing saliva with fibers), the bone dust is converted into bio-degradable material — suitable for use in a 3D printer — by mixing bone dust with bio-plastic material.

At the market, at a vendor stall, 3D objects are printed in a specialized 3D printer with the bio-degradable 3D printing filament generated by the local food waste.

Market vendors are investors in the 3D printing stall, effectively converting their waste into value.

Any discarded products safely biodegrade and cycle nutrients back into the ecosystem.

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Figure S: Loop System Diagram. Authors' illustration. Additional Slide 6