Design Indaba

Vukheta Mukhari is part of a research team that has created the world’s first bio-bricks made of human urine.

“Nature’s been building structures for far longer than humans,” he told the audience, during his talk, adding that we should harness even waste products, as nature truly knows no waste.

A born innovator, Vukheta Mukhari was always going to be at the forefront of human knowledge.

The Masters candidate in civil engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT) is passionate about greening the economy, and the ground-breaking project he is currently involved with seeks to develop more eco-friendly building materials, such as bricks.

What makes these ‘bio-bricks’ unique is that they are created from human urine. This is a world first – the US also manufactures bio-bricks from urine, but they use synthetic forms of urine to do so.

The innovative ‘bio-bricks’ - developed by a team comprising Mukhari and fellow student Suzanne Lambert, working under researcher Dr Dyllon Randall - are produced through a natural process known as microbial carbonate precipitation.

Each brick takes just six to eight days to form. With a grant from the Water Research Council, the team is testing various bio-brick shapes and tensile strengths to see how they might be used for construction.

Vukheta Mukhari was part of the Global Graduates class of 2020. Design Indaba curates the selection of global graduates together with the heads of more than 40 design institutes and colleges (and beyond) around the world. Global Gradautes are selected on the basis of their working being a change-maker, demonstrating social or environmental impact, engagement with global challenges, project feasibility, and/or an exceptionally high level of innovation.

Catalina Lotero is tackling the global energy crisis with a simple, off-the-grid, plant-based solution.

Lotero leads design as the creative director at BCG BrightHouse, where her innovative work showcases design's power to address complex societal issues.

During her talk at the Conference in Cape Town, the Colombian-born American designer, explained the triboelectric effect – contact electrification – which occurs when the leaves of trees rub together.

Through her speculative project, Raiki, she is exploring how this form of static electricity can be harnessed to create energy that everyone can use to power their homes, particularly in poorer parts of the world. “Most energy solutions don’t meet poorer communities’ needs – fossil fuels, solar panels, wind turbines,” she says. “People need something easy to understand, use and fix.”

Lotero studied industrial design in Bogotá, Colombia, and is currently doing her Masters in design at Keio University in Tokyo, came up with the sustainable solution to solve a pressing problem.

One in eight people worldwide does not have access to electricity, with 84% of them living in rural areas. Lotero’s ‘Raiki’ – essentially an autonomous generator – is sure to be a game-changing project.

How it works is simple (and complex). When leaves make contact with one another and with the trunk of a tree, they give off friction-generated energy.

This can be captured and harvested at the plant’s stem, and potentially be converted into electricity. Synthetic biology (where biology and computer engineering meet) transforms trees into efficient energy sources.

One tree could generate around 103kH per hour (via a battery) and this should supply enough power for up to seven houses.

Lotero, who was chosen as one of Colombia’s 40 under 40 entrepreneurs in 2018 – thanks to the design firm she co-founded eight years ago, Whatever Works – has previously completed design work for clients as varied as Netflix, the Discovery Channel, Nike, Suzuki, Oxfam and Jack Daniel’s.