The LIAR project (Living Architecture) was launched on 7th of April 2016 in London (UK) and is coordinated by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UNEW). The Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB) from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) participates in this new project from the EU Horizon 2020 program which is granted with € 3.2 million. Work on this project at the CIB will be directed by Prof. José Luis García López and Dr. Juan Nogales (Environmental Biotechnology Group) in the Department of Environmental Biology. The LIAR project is a collaboration of 4 academic and 2 industrial partners from 4 countries (United Kingdom (2), Italy (2), Spain (1) and Austria (1)). The objective of LIAR is to create a modular bioreactor-wall, which is based on the operational principles of microbial fuel cell technology and ‘synthetic consortia’ of microbes. LIAR is conceived as a next-generation selectively-programmable bioreactor and integral component of human dwelling, capable of extracting valuable resources from waste water and air, generation of oxygen and production of proteins and fiber by manipulating consortia performance. For its part, the CIB will participate in the modelling and optimization of synthetic bacterial consortia consisting principally of one cyanobacterium (using sunlight, CO2 and water) and two other bacterial strains for the cleaning of water and polluted air while producing added value by-products. Applications within urban systems are examined as a form of customizable micro-agriculture for installation in domestic, public (schools, hospitals) and office environments. Such a system has far reaching impacts on the building performance (resilience, resource recycling) manufacturing and design with ecosystems.
More information at http://livingarchitecture-h2020.eu