Process¶
CARTOGRAPHY_ locations and soil measurements¶
I took measurements of soil , using a gardening tool that gives you many parameters to undestand the qualities of the soil: fertility, soil's temperature and pH, humidity, sun light, and environment temperature. These are green areas in the streets and parks around my neighbourhood in Bilbao.
| location | soil fertility | moisture | pH | temperature | sun light | humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 633μs/cm | 63% | 4.0 | 9.5ºC | 7777 lux | 35% |
| 2 | 368μs/cm | 99% | 3.5 | 6.8ºC | 593 lux | 42% |
| 3 | 550μs/cm | 78% | 3.5 | 5.6ºC | 1498 lux | 40% |
MATERIAL EXPERIMENTATION_3D printing¶
MYCELIUM¶
I am trying 2 processes to try cultivate mycelium on my 3D printed shapes, first process would be inoculating the pieces while they are humid, and the second would be to inoculate them afterwards when they are dried. For both am working with a biocomposite using wood dust as inorganic matter, because it's food for the mycelium.
STEP 0: MAKING THE BIOCOMPOSITE OF WOODDUST
WOOD DUST BIOCOMPOSITE FOR 3D PRINT
Alginate 16gr
CMC 20gr
H2O 800ml
Glycerol 64gr
WOOD DUST 200gr
INOCULATING WET PIECES¶
STEP 1: AUTOCLAVE BIOCOMPOSITE
STEP 2: CLEANING AND STERILIZING WITH ALCOHOL 3D PRINTER AND TOOLS
Soaking in isopropanol the smaller parts of the WASP machine for a couple hours before printing, and spraying with isopropanol as much as posible the tank and all the parts in contact with the biocomposite.
STEP 3: 3D PRINTING WHILE SPRAYING EVERYTHING WITH PEROXIDE
STEP 4: INOCULATING PIECES AND KEEPING THEM ISOLATED ON AN STERIL ENVIRONMENT
Sadly, all the pieces I did with this recepie haven't succeded to grow mycelium and/or got contaminated, or dryed out.
INOCULATING DRY PIECES¶
NEW BIOCOMPOSITE RECIPES¶
Because the try-out pieces with my first recipe weren't working with the inoculation i tryed several new recipes on petri dishes until i find one that might work. On these recipes first i started by adding grain or bagasso together with the sawdust to see if that made the mycelium grown, but as only this together with cmc+alginate wasn't working i started to also modify a bit the quantities of the different aglutinants and add new ingredients that could feed the mycelium, such as pectine.
RECIPE 1:
Xantana Gum 1gr
CMC 1,5gr
H2O 50 gr
Glycerol 4gr
SAW DUST 6,25gr
Bagasso 6,25gr
Xantana Gum 1gr
CMC 1,25gr
H2O 50 gr
Glycerol 4gr
SAW DUST 6,25gr
Oats grain 6,25gr
Xantana Gum 2gr
H2O 50 gr
SAW DUST 6,25gr
Bagasso 6,25gr
RECIPE 4:
Xantana Gum 2gr
H2O 50 gr
SAW DUST 9,64gr
Oats grain 9,64gr
RECIPE 5:
Xantana Gum 4,5gr
Gelatine 3gr
H2O 150 gr
Glycerol 2gr
SAW DUST 26gr
Oats grain 26gr
RECIPE 6:
Xantana Gum 3gr
Pectine 3gr
CMC 1,5gr
H2O 150 gr
Glycerol 2gr
SAW DUST 20gr
Bagasso 20gr
HERE WE CAN SEE FINALLY RECIPES 5 AND 6 ARE WORKING AND MYCELIUM IS GROWING !
BIOCOMPOSITE¶
Did first try-out of my shapes to 3D print on biocomposite to see if they were working.
ORGANIC BIOCOMPOSITE FOR 3D PRINT
Xantana Gum 8gr
H2O 200ml
clementine skin dust 45gr
PARAMETRIC DESIGN¶
For the formal developement of the pieces am relating the soil measurements obtainned at each location to a parameter in grasshopper, in this way, each shape is a cartography itself of the data obtained at that location. Am inspired by the data graphic and how those can become tridimensional.
try-outs¶
First try-outs translating each location's data into a series of blocks-set
Second try-out translating each location's data into an organic shape
finals¶
I did an adaptation from this WEAVE TOWERS tutorial by Architutors to develop my prototype shapes, where i use the soil measurements to define the diferent parameters and optain a series of corelated shapes.
Here is the file to the GrassHopper definition
File: WEAVE_TOWERS
Prototypes¶
Now I've developed the tridimensional design of the pieces am first printing the prototypes in clay, to understand the shape of the pieces, how the machine reacts and prints them and to also have them to keep them as models. PROTOTYPE LOCATION 01
PROTOTYPE LOCATION 02
PROTOTYPE LOCATION 03
At the moment I am printing each piece 1x1 scale with a biocomposite made of CMC+ALGINATE+GLYCEROL+SAWDUST. Because the pieces would not stand its height while printing, i have sliced each sculpture in 7-12 slices, each of 5 to 7 cm tall. For now, i printed 4 slices from the first scultpure.
Mentoring notes¶
MIDTERM · Work towards a storytelling, more focus presentation, from concept to development and final pieces · Look into growing architecture projects
FINAL PRESENTATION · Very fine artistic approach to soil. · Take a risk to put bigger pieces in their location. · Big potential to explore further, scale the pieces to 1x1 size, explore different materials for bioprinting, soil + mycelium.