Integrated biotectural system

An integrated biotectural system (IBTS) is a system which integrates natural and architectural elements. It can include desalination of sea water. The expression was introduced describing a desalination plant seamlessly integrated within a greenhouse-like superstructure. This superstructure does not resemble a common greenhouse in any way. The new type of facility, which is the IBTS, has it's roots in design and engineering in CONTRAST to agriculture and greenhouses. It is fundamentally different from Seawater Greenhouses.

The significance of the term lies within the efficiency that only systems integration can achieve. Particular importance lies on the imitation of natural systems, especially closed cycles. The establishment of closed watercycles being the most crucial of all, because of the increasing severeness of the Global Water crisis particularly in hot desert climates.

This article deals with the area of the terms origin - IBTSs incorporating seawater desalination to buildings that serve as greenhouses (amongst others). This application is more or less bound to hot arid and semi-arid regions because it requires high amounts of solar thermal power. It has turned out to be very suitable in mitigation of the sinking of water tables in agricultural areas of the Mena region and beyond.

Performance

The desalination utility in the original IBTS developed by N.A. Berdellé requires 1.8 kWh per m3 of fresh water. It can desalinate 21 m3 per day using an area of one hectare. These are the lowest figures of all existing desalination technologies that do not require further research. The system comes at investment cost typical for modern greenhouses, not for desalination plants. It is designed for large scale desert-greening and is based on small, completely self-sufficient modules. It is deemed "Subtech" for it's lack of any critical technology. This means it is low risk and low maintenance. The IBTS works with natural processes hosted in a building. This way it never reaches natural, or physical limitations for growth like the desalination technology in the Persian Gulf already has because of brine discharge and temperature rise.

Examples

The most famous example is the Biosphere 2 that integrated residential areas into a greenhouse which was designed to be self-sufficient. An example for an IBTS that is foremost a residential home is an Earthship. These two buildings incorporate water-purification on high levels.

A proposed example is "Lilypad" and the original IBTS

General examples for IBTSs (without desalination) include buildings that blend in with nature in contrast to buildings that host natural systems or certain amounts of biomass. These examples are plentiful. Principally any (small) building that blends in with nature without disturbing it on any level could be considered an IBTS. Earthhouses are great examples and can be found in many (historic) cultures.

"Green office-towers" or vertical farming can not be labeled IBTS for the lack of integration. Highrise building is systematically detached from a resource-true approaches. The production of steel and concrete for the building does not allow for a positive Material input per service unit (MIPS).

Challenges

The discipline of integration, in the quality necessary for an IBTS, requires for another preliminary process of similar difficulty: Multi-disciplinary Engineering (MDE). The IBTS that led to the creation of the term is a MDE project incorporating 140 very different scientific topics. MDE project-planning and execution is only done by very few experts so far. It requires many years of scientific studies additional to the primary academic studies within the higher educational system. In some cases found in the design- and arts, amazing solutions for the most pressing challenges for our times, can be found developed by self-taught experts who would not even be considered for such tasks by the authorities and decision-makers. MDE is a process best described by the process of invention.

See also

  • Systems engineering
  • Earth systems engineering and management
  • Environmental management
  • Sustainability
  • Industrial ecology
  • Design review
  • Systems integrator
  • Multidisciplinary approach

Notes

See Also

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