Using plants to filter impurities from lakes and rivers is already a common practice in sustainability. It is an alternative that avoids artificial chemicals in favor of maintaining a balanced ecosystem. Now, students at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) have gone a step further, creating floating planters made of mycelium to clean pollutants from waterways while restoring wetland habitats.
Dubbed the “BioPod,” the floating planter was developed to improve water quality in a major waterway in the city of Providence. “We focused our attention on the Providence River because it is a significant waterway in the Blackstone River corridor, an urbanized river with a long history of pollution,” explains professor Katia Zolotovsky. “The Providence Climate Justice Plan focuses on cleaner energy, air, and soil, but we wanted to raise awareness about the importance of water health and aquatic biodiversity.”
The base of the pod is made of mycelium, where native plants are embedded to create microbe-friendly mini-ecosystems. The roots, which hang below the BioPods, feed on the polluted water and detoxify it in the process.
“We conducted extensive research on native plants for both saltwater and freshwater systems, since the Providence River is brackish,” says Manini Banerjee, one of the developers of the product. “We tried to create the perfect environment for bacteria that can decontaminate the water,” Banerjee adds.
The base, which must be anchored, can function in both saltwater and freshwater environments depending on the plants embedded in it. “And the mycelium base itself is also very good at detoxifying pollutants,” adds Avantika Velho, another designer who worked on the project. “Fungi are the Earth's decomposers; they provide us with soil and nutrients.”
One month after deploying the project, the team began removing and testing for metal accumulation, pH, and nitrates, as well as examining the “slimy” biofilms that accumulated beneath the bases of each planter. “We know this is not the most efficient way to filter water, but the BioPods also build soil along the riverbanks as they degrade, essentially creating a miniature wetland to support river life,” says Avantika.
Ecologist and marine scientist Jennifer Bissonnette, director of RISD's Nature Lab, supported the project from the beginning. “Wetlands purify and replenish groundwater reserves, stabilize shorelines, and protect adjacent areas from storms and flooding,” Bissonnette explains. “Projects like these bring some of that ecological function back to areas where it is desperately needed.”
The team's next step is to create more accessible versions of the BioPods so that anyone can build them — even without any design experience.
Via CicloVivo.
This article was written by Marcia Sousa. The translation is powered by AI.
