Microbial Home by Philips Design

A domestic ecosystem that challenges conventional design solutions to energy, cleaning, food preservation, lighting and human waste.

Philips presented its latest forward-looking design project, Microbial Home. This group of design concepts represents an innovative and sustainable approach to energy, waste, lighting, food preservation, cleaning, grooming, and human waste management. Microbial Home is a proposal for an integrated cyclical ecosystem where each function's output is another's input. In the project the home has been viewed as a biological machine to filter, process and recylcle what we conventionally think of as waste—sewage, effluent, garbage, waste water.

Microbial Home suggests that people should move closer to nature and proposes strategies for developing a balanced microbial ecosystem in the home. "Designers have an obligation to explore solutions which are by nature less energy-consuming and non-polluting," says Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of Design-led Innovation at Philips Design. "We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, how homes consume energy and how entire communities can pool resources," concludes van Heerden.
Microbial Home Probe project
Microbial Home Probe project
In the Microbial Home Probe, Philips adopts a systemic approach to many of the domestic processes we take for granted and asks questions about how we deal with resources. It is a proposal for an integrated cyclical ecosystem where each function's output is another's input. The Probe suggests that we should move closer to nature and challenges the wisdom of annihilating the bacteria that surround us. It proposes strategies for developing a balanced microbial ecosystem in the home.

While the electro-mechanical age may have caused these problems, van Heerden proposes that it could also help find the solution. "Technological development has enabled us to mimic nature's processes. Now all that is lacking is a collective change in consciousness to take us into a Biological Age, one where materials can repair themselves and where by-products are no longer waste but fuel for other systems. We are going to live through this epoch change whether we choose to or not. Failure to adjust our thinking, and with it our behaviors, will force the earth to exercise its self-correcting mechanisms over us." Necessity, as the old adage goes, is the mother of invention. Only one question remains: what part do we want to play?

Five lifelike models of the concepts within the Microbial Home domestic ecosystem were shown to the public at the Piet Hein Eek gallery during Dutch Design Week (DDW).
Microbial Home Probe project
Microbial Home Probe project
The Microbial Home project is part of the Philips Design Probes program, which was established to explore far future lifestyle scenarios based on rigorous research in a wide range of areas. Probes projects are intended to understand future socio-cultural and technological shifts with a view to developing nearer-term scenarios. These scenario explorations are often carried out in collaboration with experts and thought leaders in different fields, culminating in a 'provocation 'designed to spark discussion and debate around new ideas and lifestyle concepts. Previous Probe projects include Electronic Tattoo, Emotional sensing dresses, Sustainable Habitat, and the Food Probe. The Design Probe projects carried out by Philips Design are part of a wider Philips strategy aimed at improving the innovation hit rate. While it is not intended that design concepts coming out of the Probes program are translated to marketable solutions, insights gained from debate around the concepts feed into future innovation for the company.
Philips Design Probes projects are intended to understand future socio-cultural and technological shifts with a view to developing nearer-term scenarios.
Microbial Home Probe project
Microbial Home Probe project
Microbial Home Probe project
Microbial Home Probe project

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