Safe, clean water is fundamental to human wellbeing, yet many people struggle to acquire this basic resource.

Biodesign may tackle the issue of water management by fostering more sustainable relationships between humans and their environments. As something so fundamental to human health, water is a resource that demands attention at every level of society—from product design to municipal water system planning, from the workflow of bottling facilities to state regulations of water usage.

Water purification

Aqualose, Imperial College London 2014 iGEM team

For the 2014 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, the Imperial team used synthetic biology to create a strain of E. coli that could produce cellulose. Cellulose is a common biomaterial used to make paper and clothes; it can also be used to filter water. The Imperial team engineered bacterial cellulose to trap specific contaminants. The Imperial team also found that the bacterial cellulose has metal chelating properties (meaning it can remove harmful heavy metals), making it a versatile material. LEARN MORE

Jason Unbound

The Drinkable Book, Water is Life

The pages of this book act as a paper filter that purifies drinking water, reducing bacterial count by 90%. The book is to be delivered to partner villages in need of water purification and disaster sites to provide clean water immediately and save lives. One book can provide a user with clean water up to four years. LEARN MORE

Brian Gartside

Water remediation

Oyster-Tecture, Kate Orff

Kate Orff proposes a living reef supported by oyster and mussel growth. Because oysters and mussels act as natural filters, this reef would not only help shorten dangerous waves, but also remove contaminants from millions of gallons of water. In addition to its role as a vast filtration system, Oyster-Tecture is envisioned as a community-based project for Red Hook, Brooklyn, as well as a vast underwater mosaic artwork and park. Oyster-Tecture is currently in pilot development. LEARN MORE

Kate Orff

Hydrocarbon-chewing microbes

Some marine bacteria and fungi can use hydrocarbons as fuel for their own exponential growth, turning oil spills into carbon dioxide and biomass. Scientists have been studying these microbes for decades. One day, they may play a crucial role not only in cleaning up polluted waters but in breaking down other forms of hydrocarbons such as many plastics. LEARN MORE

Rethinking urban waterways

Parallel Networks, Ali Fard and Ghazal Jafari—winners of the ONE Prize design competition, “Water as the 6th Borough”

Fard and Jafari’s project to rethink the future of New York City’s waterways argues for the incremental creation and trial of various modular floating “pods.” Their envisioned system eventually integrates renewable energy production (energy from wind and biofuel from algae), water filtration, and the creation of natural habitats with the beautification or de novo creation of park-like spaces for people—a new system of productive public space, out on the water. Pods could be added and removed depending on the desired uses of a given environment. Parallel Networks won the Terreform ONE Prize in 2011. LEARN MORE