GreenLiving BioCondo, a green and biofriendly alternative for steely New York City, coming in 2037, is the brainchild of designers Chaya Droznik, Dulce Romero, and Josephine Huang.
Although the PETase enzyme successfully eradicated much of the microplastics invading our water supply, air, and bodies in 2035, in 2037 these designers wanted to make it easier than ever to live a life without microplastics and stop contributing to the problem. Tackling life in New York City is no joke, but these intrepid designers rose to the task.
Their driving questions included the following:
If microplastics are a problem,* and biodesign can fix it, why don’t more people live with biodesign in their lives?
Why aren’t more people receptive to living with biodesign?
As the designers observe:
Realizing how much plastic we use made us grab inspiration from many designs such as the vertical forest building in Milan which inspired the idea of greenliving; the Neri Oxman shell derived structure for the shoji window screen in the bathroom; indoor apartment gardens which we redesigned into the original garden/dish rack; and the idea that humans and bees can live in happy harmony, if each is given their space and ability to thrive together.
These inspiring designs put the designers on course to propose a green-living building that is biodesigned to be as plastic free as possible, but also is easy and practical to live in, because it is socially designed to help residents live in symbiotic harmony with their in home plants and bees.
The designers kept a journal of their progress from 2022 up until just prior to the building’s opening day. Here is a key observation from where they started:
Before we started this project, we had no idea what Biodesign was, since we all were community college students, we did not have these resources handed to us. Yet we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to be a part of the challenge, and though it was quite difficult to spend as much time as we would have liked due to all of us having jobs as well as heavy course loads, we grew to love biodesign. When talking to other people about this, no one seemed to know what biodesign was, and we realized that it is extremely important to make biodesign a word that everyone knows! We plan to form a biodesign club at BMCC and spread the word to our classmates that biodesign is for everyone!”
As for the social design, the creators of the building considered how the biodesigned elements would be lived and used, and carefully constructed social arrangements that would engage residents with the overall health of the building’s ecosystem, while sharing common benefits such as fresh vegetables, honey, and beeswax produced by the building’s bees, green roof, and in home gardens. These arrangements include the building’s screening system to find truly biophilic residents, and the unusual building staff which includes a resident farmer, expert beekeeper, and medicinal herbalist on staff, and on call 24/7.
When the project started more than a decade ago, in 2022, the designers conducted a pilot study in which they introduced Ecovative grow kits into their homes and communities, and then interviewed the people with whom they lived. They found a good deal of resistance, including a mom who said “why would you do this in my apartment? It looks disgusting and probably smells bad” and a roommate who observed, “that looks very messy and dirty, please get it out of my house.” After the experiment was concluded, however, respondents changed their tune, expressing positive and accepting attitudes, such as “it was really cool to see the process and it also does not smell like I thought it would!”
Taking this study into consideration, and finding time to learn about biodesign despite their already super busy schedules and lives, these intrepid designers conceived of a new way of living with biodesign, that can make it accessible to far more people, and make it into something everyone does know about.
Now that the building is open and taking applicants, these designers have realized their dream. Apply today and you can become a part of the GreenLiving ecosystem of bountiful, biodesigned living!
*Prior to the “Great Plastic Eradication (GPE)” campaign in 2035, around 8 million pieces of plastic made their way into our oceans every day. There were declines in honeybee populations reported globally, and before the eradication, microplastic pollution was considered a possible cause.Microplastics were accessing all organs, crossing cell membranes, crossing the blood–brain barrier, and entering the placenta.
They had to be stopped!