A pavlion that celebrates the closed life cycle of chicken, from being raised in the poultry farm, cooked and consumed in the restaurant or market, to be recycled into foodwares and ceramic modules in the pottery workshop. By utilizing chicken bones as building materials, it creates an afterlife for local chickens and raise the public awareness towards poultry welfare in the UK. The design is located at the Borough Market, a historic market with an emphasis on high quality food, sustainable production and social connection. By building a chicken farm in the central London, the project aims to raise people’s concern about the importance of food source in the food supply chain, how the animal lifes directly affect our lifes, and question the possibility of having ‘from farm to table’ live chickens market in the city.
The Bone-to-Build Clucktopia project is is a sustainable living project that aims to revolutionize the way we live, build, and consume. At the heart of this project is the innovative use of chicken bones as building material, transforming what was once considered waste into a valuable resource.
The project begins with the happy chickens that live in Clucktopia’s spacious and comfortable coops, where they are free to roam, perch, and scratch. These happy chickens provide more than just eggs and meat – they also produce an abundance of bones that would otherwise go to waste.
The use of chicken bones as building material is just one aspect of Clucktopia’s sustainable living approach. The project also includes a farm-to-table restaurant, where visitors can enjoy educational experiences, such as tours of the farm and workshops on sustainable living practices.
Clucktopia is not just a farm, but a social hub that brings people together and empowers the community through sustainable living practices. The project is a solution to the growing problem of waste and the need for sustainable living practices.
A number of 6.6 million tonnes of food waste is recorded in the UK every year, which equals to 3 quarters of the total food consumption. The current food waste collection system is inadequate and limited. Therefore, my design is serving as a solution to London’s food waste problem. The project BioCity, involves the use of biogas technology in a residential community, collecting food waste and manure from the residents, converting them into energy such as cooking and vehicle fuels that are sufficient to supply the whole housing and benefit nearby communities as well. The self contained residential hub is proposed over the high speed 2 train tracks at the Old Oak Common railway station, to cope with the increasing housing needs in the area. The cocoon-shaped housing units are arranged in a hexagonal grid, then array in relation to different sets of grid line identified in the railway tracks, creating a continuous pathway that circulates around the site. As a modern residential hub, BioCity proposes live-work housing units in various sizes to cope with the lasting impact of the pandemic on working styles. The flexibility of glulam timber is explored in the proposal, along with the use of rubber sheets, bringing in the nature of biogas into the dynamic façade system. The use of rubber pillow façade units can provide shading and insulation by filling air in between the rubber layers.
BioBreathe – a biomachine at the Old Oak Common Station
The project ‘BioBreathe’ proposes an innovative way to integrate biogas technology into mobile architecture, in order to encourage the use of renewable energy in households and educate the public about waste removal alternatives. The biomachine consists of curved wood panels with detailed cuts acting as skin, which will move along with the naturally contracting and expanding movements of anaerobic digestion, simulating the chest movement of breath in and out. It functions as a portable unit which can be assembled anywhere to transform waste collected into energy.
Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally, in the absence of oxygen, as bacteria break down organic materials and produce biogas. The process reduces the amount of material and produces biogas effectively, which can be used as an energy source. It is relatively cheap compared to other sustainable energy and easy to set up even in domestic settings. A household biogas plant is approximately 1000 pounds which can provide adequate daily cooking gas and fertilizers to a family. With simple operation and distinct output, it will surely increase awareness of the novel sustainable solutions.
The expandable skin is first experimented with paper models, then tested on thin plywood sheets in the fabrication lab at school. Being a postgraduate student in the University of Westminster, it will be a precious experience to build and publicize my own design. It will be a showcase for sustainable architecture that gathers talented design students to join the team of fabricating the structure.
The machine is initiated by inserting waste into the digester , gas created will go through a gas pressure mechanism and active filter, then released by a gas pipe to provide energy for a burning flame. The wood skin follows the movement of the gas holder, expanding when more gas is collected, vice versa. The structure is scalable, which can be developed into a larger plant to provide energy for communities.
To increase engagement of the community, BioBreathe is proposed to be built at the Old Oak Common Railway Station, which will offer unrivalled connectivity to the high speed two railway. The expected high flow of circulation will furthermore promote the project and impact the society.
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