BIOPAVER
by Jill Fehrenbacher, 05/05/05
When I wrote about Biopaver, yesterday, I couldn’t give any details about the project, because I couldn’t find any information about it on the internet. Thanks to the prompt arrival of Metropolis in my mailbox yesterday, I now gots the dish:
Biopaver, Joseph Hagerman’s winning design for Metropolis’ Next Generation Contest, is a system of interlocking concrete paving blocks that promote drainage and combats waterborne pollutants. The paving stone’s precast core becomes the seedbed for phytoremediating plants (those that remove pollutants from the soil through theit own natural mechanisms). Biopaver is not only a storm-water management solution, but a way to prevent pollutants from seeping into the ground. The pavers can contain seeds from various plant species and can also be
molded into various shapes. According to Joseph Hagerman:
You lay out the Biopavers, let the sun and rain degrade the
bioplastic mold, and in two months you have a garden growing.
Via Metropolis
UPDATE (June 2nd 2005) Biopaver now has a website >
[...] In Bill McDonough’s famous 3-line vision for the transformation of design, waste=food. With this in mind, it’s best to turn as much of the material you discard at home into potential nutrients for plants and products in the future. Start a compost bin, separate household waste into organic, recyclable, and trash – and then find ways to cut down on the size of that third pile. Outside, you have options, too. Where frequently we let rainwater get away, there are materials such as biopaver, which capture and use rain, reduce storm water run-off, and use less overall material than impermeable paving. [...]