Lutaw Project: Life-Friendly Buoy System
Objectives:
- Start by identifying a challenge linked to the UN SDGs and use a biomimicry approach and process to come up with a design proposal for the specific challenge
- Frame the design research by asking: “How would nature do ……….?” and apply the biomimicry research to the design proposal
Project Duration: February – May 2023
Designed For: Biomimicry course, Pratt Institute
Role: Student, Sustainable Design Programme
Overview: A buoy system designed by looking to the natural world for inspiration, with the intention to make aquaculture gear in the Philippines both functional and life-friendly. Design elements were inspired by mangrove seeds, coconuts, arthropods, and various algae species.
The redesign of buoys and a buoy system came from ideating on the following question: How might we create seaweed aquaculture gear that’s harmonious with the systems that they exist within?
Buoys commonly used now for fishing and aquaculture are made from synthetic polymers that don’t easily biodegrade: expanded polystyrene (EPS), ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Buoys are widely used in seaweed aquaculture operations in the Philippines. The long line methods use hundreds of foam buoys or empty PET bottles to hold up cultivation ropes.
Foam breaks easily and PET bottles photograde over time and break into smaller pieces which end up in marine ecosystems, get ingested by animals and end up in the food web. The Philippines lacks plastic recycling infrastructure, so unusable products end up getting incinerated, in landfills or littered in the environment.
- How does nature modify buoyancy?
- How does nature protect from excess liquids?
- How does nature remain afloat in conditions with currents and waves?
- How does nature protect from UV?
- How does nature attach/anchor?
- How does nature resist hydrodynamic forces?
Prompt questions were made based on the following desired features for the design:
- The life-friendly buoys benefit marine and terrestrial ecosystems and species, as they would not have the negative cascading impacts of plastic buoys commonly used today
- Buoys would be made out of algae, a non-toxic material that can easily biodegrade over time and is safe for living beings
- Algae used to make the buoys would be sourced from seaweed farmers in the Philippines, which provide them with an additional market/income to support their livelihoods
- Production would also be done locally which creates livelihood opportunities for more community members
- A take-back system at the end-of-use phase would allow the buoys to be recycled into new buoys, and once they can’t be mechanically recycled anymore they can be composted
- Suggested ideas for redesigning the long line system for seaweed aquaculture would make the operations more resilient to disturbances so that seaweed farmers don’t lose all of their seaweed and income when there are typhoons
For this project, I chose to focus on a challenge that’s specific to the place that I’m from, the Philippines. While I am aware that fishing and aquaculture are large industries in the country, I was surprised to see what seaweed aquaculture operations look like. To keep the long lines of seaweed afloat, small pieces of expanded polystyrene (EPS) or old PET bottles are used in the hundreds, creating rows and rows on the ocean surface. Given the volumes of research that show the negative impacts these petroleum-based materials have (as microplastics and accumulation in the food web, among other things), I looked at how we might create seaweed aquaculture gear that’s harmonious with the systems that they exist within.
Throughout the course I thought about the balance of designing the gear to be functional for users in the places where they’ll use them and also life-friendly for the species that will come into contact with the buoys. Humans have created materials that perform in ways we want them to, however, these technical materials are not compatible with the ecosystems that they’re used in. This is where I think the practice of biomimicry is helpful, to look at what strategies already exist in the natural world and learn from them in how we design.