The Biopod Collective
bi·o·pod
Restoring wetlands, enhancing biodiversity, and purifying water
without synthetic organisms, electricity, or chemicals
Details
Living systems design • Biodesign • Community Engagement
Funding
• Providence pilot project was supported by RISD’s Inaugural Somerson Sustainability Innovation Fund (SSIF) grant
• Winners of the 2024 Terra Carta Design Lab Global Competition - awarded £100,000 by His Majesty King Charles III and Sir Jony Ive through the Sustainable Markets Initiative
Date
2023
Team
Avantika Velho (Co-founder) • Manini Banerjee (Co-Founder) •
Katia Zolotovsky • Skylar Perez • Malvika Agarwal • Joel Yong
Role: Co-Founder, Bio-fabrication, Concept design, Grant Writing, Business Development, Microscopy and Plant Biology
Featured
• Presented at the AIA | ACSA Material Economies Conference 2023
• Presented at the Stormwater Innovation Exposition 2023 @ The Roger Williams Park
•
Presented at Museum of the Modern Art (MoMA) through the projects showcase at the Biodesign Challenge Summit 2023
Dezeen Magazine Feature
2024 Terra Carta Design Lab Winners
RISD TCDL competition winner
The Brown Daily Herald Feature
RISD Media Feature
The Biopods Instagram
The Biopods Website
We are mesmerized by wetlands - the kidneys of the earth - filled with diverse plants with root structures and micro-biomes that have evolved to purify contaminants in water through a process called Bio-remediation.
We are creating human-scale floating modular wetlands, called Biopods. Which facilitates the establishment of a long term bioremediation infrastructure as well as education for continued community involvement in the maintenance of their waterways.
| The Biopods project embodies the well-established indigenous knowledge and technology of floating wetlands, knitting together a fabric that revitalizes fringe marshes and enhances water purification in a means with no synthetically edited organisms, no electricity and no chemicals. |
The modular BIOPOD system was piloted for participatory co-creation events with the Providence community to enhance practical skills and understanding of wetlands’ role in the local ecosystem. Our team aimed for community members to construct biopods during guided fabrication workshops that prioritized accessibility, economy, and ease of construction.
Biopods are human-scale ecosystem modules, designed to:- Remediate water quality
- Reintroduce vital fringe marshes into urban environments, and
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Engage the public in citizen science.
Each Biopod is designed to host biodiversity and serves as an ecosystem service for various benefits to human and more-than-human societies and systems.
Our team worked with WaterFire Providence®, an independent nonprofit arts organization, to launch the pods into the Providence River during their annual Clear Currents Waterfire Festival. This community paddling event celebrates improved water quality in RI in August 2023, and was attended by over 10,000 people. The biopods were launched with the help of the kayakers at the Clear Currents event. An information booth featuring a growing biopod was set up alongside the river to educate the community about the project and source feedback.
Integrating regenerative, nature-based solutions in urban landscapes is crucial for mitigating the impact of historical pollution and promoting sustainable coexistence.
Each Wetland Biopod module consists of a buoyant mat embedded with biogenic matter.
Bioremediation within each Wetland Biopod involves two main processes:
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Phyto-remediation (root systems purify water through fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms)
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Mycoremediation (mycelial fibres detoxify, harbouring enzymes that digest harmful compounds)
It's crucial to understand that the pods are living machines - not a single intelligent machine but rather an assemblage of minds; all relating and inter-relating and adapting to one another in complex and ever-shifting ways. They consist of various species working together, and they exhibit life processes such as growth, reproduction, and most importantly, metabolism.
During this metabolic process, some organisms secrete digestive enzymes that play a vital role in breaking down complex chains of toxins. This enzymatic degradation is essential for detoxifying the environment as it breaks down complex chains of toxins into smaller, more digestible ones.
The diversity of organisms within the pods enables them to address a wide spectrum of toxins and pollutants present in the water. Some of these organisms work to accumulate and some work to digest. For more complex chains, the system works together so that accumulation allows for digestion in the long term. This adaptability and resilience make the Biopods effective living machines for improving water quality and ecosystem remediation.
The deployment of modular permaculture style ecosystems begins to restore the environment in a more meaningful way than traditional monocultural reforestation efforts as it echoes the biological complexities found in nature.
The Biopods start as individual aggregated wetlands which come together to form larger tessalated pods. Over time, the porus myceleum boat fosters root interconnections. The mycelium boat decomposes at the rate at which the roots interconnect allowing for the re-fringing of once-present wetlands.
Light, SEM, and Compound Microscopy highlights from in and around the Biopods. We found lots of promise in these initial tests, given which we are excited to deploy the pods in more water bodies and to bring more poeple closer to this technology in order for them to take charge of their water health and ecosystem resiliency.
Our presentation at the Stormwater Innovation Exposition 2023 @ The Roger Williams Park
Our presentation at the New Climate Futures event @ Newlab 2024
The Biopod system is designed for flexibility and allows for localized fabrication and installation - in various sites ranging from Urban, Suburban, Rural, and Polluted wetlands.
We are currently setting up Biopod Hotspots worldwide, with local communities in the United States, London, Ghana, India, and Japan. Follow along our journey here: https://www.biopodco.org/