PROTONIC WINDOWS: These exploratory drawings of the construction of microbial fuel cell-containing building materials aim to generate questions and prototypes that can be tested experimentally.SIMONE FERRACINA/LIVING ARCHITECTURE CONSORTIUM
Bristol Robotics Laboratory, on the grounds of the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), is a clean, dynamic place. Thin partitions separate researchers sitting next to their meticulously designed robots in a huge, open-plan think tank. But down the hall is a separate room, cut off from the hubbub.
Ioannis Ieropoulos and Gimi Rimbu have not shared why their lab is sealed off from the rest of the site as we open the door and take our first step inside, so it’s a shock when we’re met by an odor that brings tears to the eyes. The vile smell that Ieropoulos’s and Rimbu’s acclimated nostrils barely notice? Wastewater—delivered a few days prior from the local sewage treatment plant and siphoned into thumb-sized holes ...
