Project developed together with:
Maria Camila Gomez, Paula Rodriguez, Estefania Santos
YUNDO
Project participated in the Biodesign Challenge, presented at Parsons and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York 2018
Nowadays, most people living in industrialized cities spend up to 90% of their time indoors. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), people are exposed to higher pollution levels in their homes and workplaces than outdoors.
For these reasons, we created YUNDO (purity in Japanese), a living surface made of biodegradable materials and living organisms that help improve indoor air quality with an artistic and sustainable design.
It comprises two essential elements: the first is a surface material made from natural fibers made from agricultural waste, which was created through the sustainable paper manufacturing process.
“Agricultural waste is cheap, biodegradable, and easy to find worldwide. Depending on the country of manufacture, this agricultural waste would vary, and using it would improve environmental sustainability. For example, in Colombia, bagasse is obtained from sugar cane. At the same time, it will be the agricultural waste of corn and rice in the United States and China, respectively,” - Julieta Gaitan
In the case of bagasse, the paper manufacturing process consisted of pulping, mixing, forming paper, extracting water and finally drying for two days to obtain the Yundo surface made of natural fiber.
The second element is the heart of Yundo, which lives within this natural fiber and is cyanobacteria, genetically modified organisms that release oxygen by taking in CO2 from the air.
The bacteria are placed in the bagasse, which remains like a cloth inside the plastic, protecting the transparent surface that allows oxygen to pass through. It could be confused with a painting.
