Supported by the Europe Forest Institute (EFI) and in collaboration with a number of organizations throughout Europe and beyond, Valldaura Labs has begun co-authoring the Green Book of Biocities, a seminal text which will define the new paradigm of Biocities and the key strategies to make them a reality.

By synthesizing inputs from stakeholders and all of the organizations involved – whose expertise span from sustainable forest management to agriculture, circular/bio-economics, health, ecology, nature-based solutions, social issues, architecture, urbanism and policy making – the ambition of the Green Book is to arrive at a consensus regarding the definition of Biocities which holistically incorporates all of these vital components.
The Green Book begins from the deceptively simple premise that Biocities are cities that follow the principles of natural systems to promote life.

Proceeding to the recognition that humans lived in harmony with nature for centuries prior to the industrial revolution and the widespread use of greenhouse-gas emitting fossil fuels; that the forms and functions of cities have historically evolved in direct response to the primary challenges faced by civilization during the era of their development; that cities now account for 75% of global greenhouse-gas emissions*; and that the human population is projected to increase by 2 billion majority urban individuals by 2050; the Green Book then acknowledges that a fundamental re-naturalization of the urban model is necessary both for existing cities and those destined to be built or expanded across the world if we’re to maintain any reasonable expectation of mitigating the most disastrous effects of global climate change.

The Green Book will be published in 2022, and will make clear how the technologies and knowledge available today can most effectively address these challenges, as well as which technologies and knowledge we must prioritize advancing.

Year Completed: 2021

Duration: 1 year

Budget: 200.000€

Project Coordinator(s): Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza, Stefano Boeri (SISEF)

IAAC Project Managers: Vicente Guallart, Michael Salka

Partner Organizations: Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF), Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Croatian Forest Research Institute (CFRI), Public Interest Group on Forest Ecosystems (ECOFOR), KU Leuven (KULEUVEN), University of Hong Kong (HKU), Institute for Global Health Barcelona (ISGLOBAL), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (HUB-GD), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), UK Forest Research (UKFR)

Stakeholder/Expert Panel Organizations: Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO), Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF-RIF), BOS+ More than Just Trees (BOS+), Area Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB), Comune/Città Metropolitana di Bari (BARI), Urban Next/Actar Publisher (ACTAR), Secretaria Distrital de Ambiente Bogota (SDAB), TURENSCAPE Co. Ltd. (TUSC), University of Florence (DISIT), Sapienza University (PA-Rome), University of Sheffield (UNIS_LAND), ETIFOR, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USDA-FS), RUDN University (RUDN)

Funding Organization: European Forest Institute (EFI)

Hacking Ecology provides high accuracy water monitoring systems using the most powerful open source tools. Hacking Ecology builds the most powerful and accessible open source tools for water monitoring, and a secure, unalterable, distributed and accessible database. Hacking Ecology empowers communities to find information and data to take and demand action! Hacking Ecology is a group of ecologists, technologists and environmental advocates building high accuracy and fair price systems for water monitoring and environmental data management

Benefits:

Modular system
With a range of up to 7 variables, systems can be customized and sensors added or changed.

Integration
Data can be accessed via WiFi or USB connection, and stored in a distributed and robust database.

No barriers
Connections can be made using GNU/Linux, Mac or Windows, and data visualized remotely on a mobile phone.

Rock-solid
Certified sensors and an impact-tolerant enclosure ensure top class performance and durability that can be depended upon.

Reliable
A secure and distributed database protects data with a replicated design ready for real-time processing!

Applications:

Research
Thanks to regular testing, continual improvement and the robustness of our modular hardware, Hacking Ecology can deliver a reliable product perfectly suited to all types of field work and research projects. Hacking Ecology facilitates access to a large amount of quality data, enabling universities and research organizations to make new discoveries in the exciting field of water research.

Citizen science
Citizen scientists and autonomous groups are key players in water monitoring, social inclusion and knowledge exchange. Hacking Ecology empowers citizens to carry out environmental studies by equipping them with affordable and easy-to-use tools, in addition to providing training on best practices in water monitoring.

Industries
Hacking Ecology aims to facilitate the adoption of stable and reliable water monitoring systems for public agencies, environmental engineers and private companies who are committed to reducing the environmental impact of wastewater released into the environment in parallel to improving the efficiency and sustainability of their operations.

Urban water
Water is essential for almost all human activities, health and recreation. Fair-cost and high quality water monitoring systems promote the adoption and implementation of more intensive and integrated monitoring. With proper monitoring, we can get a clearer picture of our nearby water conditions, allowing us to accelerate advances in both human health and environmental conservation.

Year Completed: 2019

Duration: 4 months

Site: Valldaura Labs, Barcelona, Spain

Project Coordinator(s): Saulo Jacques (Hacking Ecology), Valentina Cristofoli (Hacking Ecology), Tristan Copley-Smith (COACT), Jana Brauch (COACT)

Valldaura Labs Director: Vicente Guallart

IAAC Project Manager: Jonathan Minchin

Green Fab Lab Manager / Technical Coordinator: Michael Salka

Project Partners: COACT, University of Burgos (eCoCrEALab), Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (PPGEC-UFMS), University of Barcelona (FEHM-Lab), Institute for Neighborhood Monitoring of Contaminated Spaces (IMVEC), Barcelona Activa Technology Park, Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH)

Website: https://hackingecology.com/

The Dronecoria team believes technology can help to fight the climate crisis. One of the most effective ways to mitigate climate change and restore the health of our ecosystems is reforestation. To speed up this process we Dronecoria offers an open-source set of tools for large-scale, low-cost reforestation. The system includes everything necessary from automated seed processing to drone-powered replanting. After five years of work and successful pilot projects, Dronecoria has completed their technology and is ready to share it with the world.

What’s special about dronecoria’s technology?

• 10x cost reduction vs. by-hand planting methods.
• Faster & less destructive to the environment than other methods.
• Lowest cost reforestation drone available, a fraction of the cost of similar drones.
• Full spectrum reforestation system enabling production of seed balls at scale.
• All the technologies are open-source; download our files and build them yourself.

What can dronecoria’s technology achieve?

• Sowing seeds that will turn into new forests.
• Pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere.
• Protecting biodiversity and restoring ecosystems.
• Spreading the technology to empower communities all around the world to reforest, massively scaling the rate of restoration.

Drones are important, but they can’t make forests on their own. We need to give seeds the best chance to grow into trees. By coating seeds in a special mix of nutrients, we can protect them from extreme weather, wildlife, and dryness. The Seed Computer and Seed Ball Machine allow Dronecoria to produce and test the best coatings for each seed, and share this information with everybody. Unlike other drone reforestation technologies who keep this part secret, Dronecoria is sharing the information and machines so anyone can make thousands of seed balls in minutes!

This technology is what Dronecoria believes the world needs to increase the efficiency of reforestation. There are half a dozen collaborative startups around the world investigating the same idea, all working hard to show data about the success rate of the trees and bushes to prove that the method is working and scalable.

Dronecoria was invited to participate as one of the first projects to be incubated in a new eco-tech innovation accelerator program called COACT hosted at Valldaura Labs. During this residency, Dronecoria successfully built and tested two new drone designs.

Year Completed: 2019

Duration: 4 months

Site: Valldaura Labs, Barcelona, Spain

Project Coordinator(s): Lot Amorós (Dronecoria), Tristan Copley-Smith (COACT), Jana Brauch (COACT)

Valldaura Labs Director: Vicente Guallart

IAAC Project Manager: Jonathan Minchin

Green Fab Lab Manager / Technical Coordinator: Michael Salka

Project Partners: COACT, ONG Fafy, Bomba de Semilla, Flying Labs, Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU), Rondonopolis Federal University (UFR), Trees for Life

Website: https://dronecoria.org/en/main/

COACT is an environmental technology accelerator and innovation hub, supporting the development of early-stage solutions to the world‘s most pressing ecological and climate-related challenges. COACT was founded by a group of climate technology enthusiasts, makers and successful entrepreneurs sharing a vision for technology that serves a purpose beyond profit. COACT focuses on innovative technologies in areas that have a high impact on mitigating climate change, including: reforestation; agriculture and food supply chains; ecosystem conservation; and the circular economy. COACT believes that the use of technology has separated us from nature and destabilised the balance of our climate. Therefore technology must find a new purpose; to repair our natural systems, help life to thrive, and to connect as many humans as possible to the processes of change. If short-sighted technology helped cause this dilemma, far-sighted technology can help fix it.

COACT’s incubation lab is located at IAAC’s Valldaura Campus in the hills 10 kilometres from downtown Barcelona, surrounded by 130 hectares of forest. Among the trees and state of the art prototyping tools, COACT invites participation by everyone from makers and software hackers to scientists and self-taught engineers; forming a diverse community of innovators from all around the globe. COACT provides space, lab access and customized mentorship to resident entrepreneurs and innovators, with the goal of offering all the tools and support necessary to develop radical solutions to the challenges facing our planet.

COACT appreciates that solutions come from a variety of different people, places, and organisational structures. Therefore COACT’s relationships with innovators are flexible and evolving. Unlike conventional accelerators, COACT maximizes impact over profit and is activating a community of change-makers for support. COACT’s most urgent purpose is to heal the damage we have caused our biosphere and our climate. Thus, COACT looks for innovators that share this vision, and are actively working on early to mid-stage technologies solving urgent environmental challenges in our focus verticals.

THE SPACE
The Valldaura campus, a renovated monastery, sits 20 minutes from the center of Barcelona set in 130 hectares of forest. Facilities include a FabLab, wood shop, a permaculture farm and biological science station to meet a wide range of green tech development needs.

ABOUT LIVING
COACT offers on site catering and accommodation for our innovators, allowing full project immersion during our incubation programs. Beautiful common spaces, bathrooms, and communal dining areas will meet the living needs of our innovators.

THE LAB
Residents can expect full access to a world class Green Fab Lab, a unique node in the global network of Fab Lab. Equipment includes full scale and desktop CNC mills, large and mid size laser cutters, 3D printers, electronics soldering station, and a biological science station.

THE WOOD SHOP
Not every problem demands a hi-tech solution. The hands-on wood shop provides tools & craft for low tech designs. Since the lab is based in the forest, prototyping materials for the wood shop can often be harvested zero kilometres from the work space.

Year Established: 2019

Duration: Ongoing

Site: Valldaura Labs, Barcelona, Spain

Project Coordinator(s): Tristan Copley-Smith (COACT), Jana Brauch (COACT)

Valldaura Labs Director: Vicente Guallart

IAAC Project Manager: Jonathan Minchin

Green Fab Lab Manager / Technical Coordinator: Michael Salka

Website: https://www.coactlab.org/

OSBeehives is on a mission to technify the beekeeping industry by building a global network of beekeepers and identifying causes and solutions for colony health deterioration. This mission is founded on the principles of citizen science, open data, and collaboration between beekeepers.

OSBeehives’ integrated hardware and software solutions make use of the latest deep neural network and digital signal processing technologies applied to beehive audio recordings and sensor measurements with the goal of detecting possible hive health problems. All of this can be done remotely and automatically, letting beekeepers know that something is going wrong so they can intervene and possibly save the colony. For example, colonies that are about to swarm have unique audio signatures and temperature changes that we can identify before the swarm itself occurs, giving the beekeeper a chance to capture the swarm or stop it entirely.

BuzzBox: Beehive Monitoring IoT Device
The BuzzBox is a solar-powered, Wi-Fi capable device that transmits audio, temperature, and humidity signals that are automatically analyzed using state of the art AI to predict the health of your hive. It also features theft alarms and an external weather station.

OSBeehives App
The OSBeehives App is a free solution to remotely monitor hive measurements produced with a BuzzBox or any other device. The app also allows to record the sound produced by your beehive and analyze it using the same BuzzBox AI, with lots of exciting new features coming soon.

Beehives
The Colorado Top Bar & the Barcelona Warre beehives are open source, flat pack, snap fit hives that respect natural beekeeping principles to create ideal conditions for your bees. You can obtain the files for the hives for free in our Open Source page.

Year Established: 2013

Duration: Ongoing

Site: Valldaura Labs, Barcelona, Spain; Broomfield, Colorado, USA

Project Coordinator(s): Aaron Makaruk (CEO), Tristan Copley-Smith (Communications Director), Jonathan Minchin (Designer), Peter Naylor (Developer), Javier Andrés Calvo (CFO), Jeff Thomas (Developer)

Valldaura Labs Director(s): Vicente Guallart, Daniel Ibañez

Green Fab Lab Manager / Technical Coordinator: Michael Salka

Project Partners: OSBeehives, Fab Lab Barcelona, The Unstung Hero, Zambeezi

Website: https://www.osbeehives.com/

To date, quantifying the amount of carbon or energy embodied in an architectural project has been a complex procedure. This was by necessity, as obtaining accurate figures requires thorough tracing of each constituent component through every transformation from raw material to finished product throughout its entire respective life cycle. So-called life-cycle analysis/assessment (LCA) methodologies are critical tools in the effort to mitigate global climate-change and environmental degradation, and therefore must be conducted with the appropriate degree of scientific rigor. Unfortunately, the inability to quickly and easily understand, in empirical terms, the effect formal and material choices architects and designers make during the process of design development negates the possibility of using such valuable information as feedback to iteratively inform the evolution of the project, thereby optimizing the amount of carbon or energy invested in its ultimate realization. Furthermore, when such studies are completed, the associated documentation is often so dense that, rather than enabling rational decision making, the reports tend to paralyze stakeholders with information overload, or worse, be used to justify un-ecological choices via misinterpretation or misrepresentation of the data.

Fortunately, the vast majority of components integrated in architectural projects are not conceived entirely from scratch with each new commission, but rather drawn from established supply chains. At present, enough LCA studies have been completed for common architectural products and components that it has become possible for researchers to compile richly detailed databases, notably the Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE), which is available for free download from the Circular Ecology* website. Synthesizing an extensive library of past LCA studies, the ICE database provides designers and analysts with coefficients clearly communicating the amount of carbon or energy embodied in a wide variety of building products per unit of product mass.

In collaboration with the eminent data visualization company Bestiario, the Valldaura Labs team has leveraged the ICE database (among other related resources) to provide designers and architects with a last-mile solution for using embodied carbon and energy information as an efficiently comprehensible point of feedback for iteratively tuning the ecological performance of design proposals. Summarily, an interactive, user-friendly interface diagramming the proportional amount of carbon or energy embodied in the various components of a building, as well as the relationship between embodied carbon or energy and the source/destination locations of various building components, links to a 3D digital model of the proposed building in order to calculate the volume of its assorted materials and assemblies. Numerous softwares already exist for tuning the energetic efficiency of buildings in operation, but this new application signifies a revolutionary step in empowering architects and designers, for the first time, to refine and corroborate their decisions in order to optimize the amount of carbon or energy invested in the construction of a proposed building. Considering that, for buildings to be constructed between the present day and 2050, the proportion of operational to embodied energy is projected to be 50:50*, providing tools to tackle this half of the equation is a fundamental aspect of the campaign to secure an environmentally stable future.

*Notes:

https://circularecology.com/embodied-carbon-footprint-database.html
https://architecture2030.org/new-buildings-embodied/

Year Completed: 2020

Duration: 6 months

Directors: Vicente Guallart, Daniel Ibañez

Technical Coordinator: Michael Salka

Green Fab Lab Manager: Jordi Prat

Partner Organizations: Bestiario

Website: http://projects.bestiario.org/prototype/iaac/quarantine-cabin/#/

RAW Nature was a design + build seminar combining the expertise of Bureau Chekharda, a world leader in naturalistic playscapes, with the advanced technologic and ecologic capacities of Valldaura Labs. The course began by familiarizing students with the principles of sustainable forest management and natural succession to enable them to select appropriate trees for harvest. Guided by specialists in the critical evaluation of factors such as species, age, form, accessibility, exposure, adjacent vegetation and canopy density, students identified trees which benefit – rather than harm – the greater ecosystem through their removal by empowering successional flora to mature in their stead.

Subsequently, the removed trees were scanned and modeled using experimental photogrammetry methods to assess their structural integrity upon inversion and determine an aesthetic, performative composition. Each tree then had its bark peeled; this is a time-consuming yet essential process to reveal the beauty of the grain underneath and produce a durable surface for public interaction. Ultimately, students install the processed trees in the final playscape. The respectful maintenance of the organic geometries results in a structure ideally suited for creative, interpretive play or leisure and subtly reminds the user of the broader context of the encompassing natural park and the value of conservation.

Year Completed: 2019

Duration: 1 month

Site(s): Collserola Natural Park, Barcelona, Spain

Coordinates: 41.447822° N, 2.136944° E

Budget: 3.000€

Parent Program(s): Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings & Biocities (MAEBB)

Directors: Vicente Guallart, Daniel Ibañez

Instructors: Daria Bychkova, Michael Salka

Operations Manager: Laia Pifarré

Academic Coordinator: Marziah Zad

Green Fab Lab Manager / Technical Coordinator: Michael Salka

Designers (MAEBB Students): Alex Hadley, Anfisa Mishchenko, Sena Kocao?lu, Camille Garnier, Dania Aburouss, Ester Camps Bastida, Filippo Vegezzi, Giada Mirizzi, Juan Gabriel Secondo, Maitri Joy Uka, Camila Fajardo, Nathalie Botbol, Shreya Sharma, Yue Zhang, Zhiqian Liu, Rafael Abboud, Irene Rodriguez Perez

Sponsors: Collserola Natural Park

Consultants: Gerard Passola

Volunteers: Luis Leveri

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia coordinates the EU project Robotics for Microfarms (ROMI) under the framework H2020. IAAC is part of a consortium formed by a team of interdisciplinary experts in computer science (Inria, Sony), robotics and electronics (UBER, Sony, IAAC), plant modelling and agronomy (CNRS, INRIA), as well as microfarming (SCEA-PC, SCEA-CM) which will be in charge of developing ROMI initiative, an open a lightweight robotics platform for small farming land areas.

By implementing robotics in farmlands, ROMI will assist in weed reduction and crop monitoring and it also will help in reducing manual labour, saving farmers 25% of their time. The technology applied in this project will acquire detailed information on sample plants and will be coupled with a drone, developed by Noumena, that acquires more global information at crop level.

Robotics for Microfarms will produce an integrated, multi-scale picture of the crop development that will help the farmer monitor the crops to increase efficient harvesting. This project aims to adapt and extend state-of-the-art land-based and air-borne monitoring tools to handle small fields with complex layouts and mixed crops. IAAC in collaboration with an international consortium will develop and bring to the market and affordable, multi-purpose, land-based robot, integrated 3D plant analysis in the robot for detailed plant monitoring, an aerial Networking Environmental Robotics (NERO) drone for multi-scale crop monitoring and test the effectiveness of this solution in real-world field conditions.

Year Completed: 2017-2022

Duration: 4.5 years

Site(s): Valldaura Labs, Barcelona, Spain; Chatelain Maraichage, Le Thillay, France

Budget: 3.868.186,25 €

Parent Program(s): Horizon 2020

Project Coordinator: Jonathan Minchin (IAAC)

IAAC Department: Fab City Research Lab (Green Fab Lab)

Partner Organizations: Sony Europe Limited (Sony), France Europe Innovation (FEI), Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria), National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Humboldt University of Berlin (UBER), Civil Society of Agricultural Exploitation Pépinières Chatelain (SCEA-PC), Civil Society of Agricultural Exploitation Chatelain Maraichage (SCEA-CM)

Collaborators: Noumena (Noumena), Fab Lab Barcelona (Fab Lab BCN)

Website: https://romi-project.eu/