systems

main question

Emerging research indicates diverse microbial communities that associate with plant-root systems could improve human health and wellbeing indoors.

Active Modular Phytoremediation Systems (AMPS) represents a long standing investigation into the potential of scalable and modular building-integrated plant systems and their associated microbiomes to improve indoor air quality, thereby reducing the energy intensive demands of mechanical air handling systems.

How can we dramatically transform urban environments through building-integrated agriculture?

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Plants as Urban Lungs

Yale CEA researchers are exploring the potential for AMPS systems to act as urban "lungs" - turning night-time light pollution into an air quality resource.

Plants as Urban Lungs

Yale CEA researchers are exploring the potential for AMPS systems to act as urban "lungs" - turning night-time light pollution into an air quality resource.

Prototype Development at New Lab

Modular System Prototype

Active Airflow

Indoor air containing potentially containing harmful chemicals such as VOCs, a byproduct on many indoor materials, furnishing, and finishes, is actively pulled through the root rhizosphere of plants where associated microorganisms are able to metabolize these compounds into benign matter.

AMPS System Prototype and Demonstration Unit

Rhizodegredation

Rhizodegredation is the process by which microorganisms associated with the roots of plants metabolize organic compounds such as those typically found in many building materials, converting pollutants known to be harmful to human health into harmless compounds.

AMPS Lab Scale Unit

Extensive Laboratory testing provides a baseline of plant-based systems for building-scale applications.

Prototype Fabrication

Investigating Geometry to maximize fabrication effiiency using 48 Fold Symmetry

Architectural Performance of Minimal Surfaces

AMPS Prototypes have explored multiple systems geometries including the I-WP Triply Periodic Minimal Surface discovered by Alan Schoen for NASA in 1970. Geometric development combines multiple strucural, fabrication, and system performances to maximize greenwall efficiency.

Geometric Potentials

Investigating multiple morphologies of greenwall geometry to achieve multiple spatial conditions.

Prototype Tending

Multi-scalar test beds

Yale CEA researchers employ techniques at the laboratory, room, zone, and building scales to characterize not only fundamental system functions at the chemical level, but to contextualize this performance within the complexities and matrix behaviors of the built environment.

Room Scale Experimental Test Beds

Systems are studied in vivo to understand system performance at room scale.

PSAC II, Bronx, New York, USA

PSAC II, Bronx, New York, USA

Visualizing the Matrix Behaviors of AMPS in the Built Environment

PSAC II, Bronx, New York, USA

Tending and monitoring plant health and system performance.

Building Integrated Systems

Modular systems can be deployed in many potential spatial configurations to maximze biomass and air exposure.

Building Scale Applications

Envisioning biomass operating at the scale of the built environment.

Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Lisbon Airport Installation

Scales of Intervention and Investigation

To design with living systems Yale CEA researchers investigate and intervene at multiple scales of systems performances and behaviors.

Fundamental Research

Exploring the fundamental relationships between design choices and system performance.

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team

collaborators

selected

publications

Anna Dyson, Jason Vollen, Ahu Aydogan, Matt Gindlesparger, Jefferson Ellinger, Elizabeth Hénaff, Peter Stark, Ted Ngai, Tyler Stout, Josh Draper, Phoebe Mankiewicz, Mohamed Aly Etman, Paul Mankiewicz, Christina Ciardullo, Andreas Theodoridis, Cynthia Collins, Divya Ravichandar, Alicia Walf, Ranjit Arpels-Josiah, Krystal Pollit, Elizabeth Lin, Katrina Estacio, Rohit Chitale, Andrew Rosner, Mandi Pretorius, Ben Feagin, Paulo Pinheiro, John Erickson, Kristin Bennett, Beizhan Yan, Qiang Yang, Philippe Baveye, Connor Pinson, Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly Etman, Justin Shultz, Marianne Nyman, Kenton Philips, Carmen Trudell.

Sci Rep 14, 23857 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72341-y

A deployable film method to enable replicable sampling of low-abundance environmental microbiomes

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Elizabeth Z. Lin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Krystal J. Godri Pollitt, Anna H. Dyson and Elizabeth M. Hénaff

Research Directions: Biotechnology Design , Volume 2 , 2024 , e5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/btd.2024.4

Growing indoor environmental infrastructure: designing for microbial diversity with implications for pollutant metabolism and human health

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Anna Dyson and Elizabeth Hénaff

International Society of Exposure Science, 2023 Annual Meeting. Chicago, USA

Exploring the Impact of urban Green Infrastructure on Airborne Biological and Chemical Contaminants Indoors: Developing a Novel Data Collection and Analysis Protocol Utilizing Passive Samplers and Paired Metagenomic & Chemical Analyses

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Elizabeth Lin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Elizabeth Henaff, Krystal Godri Pollitt, Anna Dyson

International Society of Exposure Science, 2022 Annual Meeting. Lisbon, Portugal

A Novel Method to Explore the Impact of Architectural Design on Biological and Non-Biological Components of the Indoor Exposome

Elizabeth Lin, Phoebe Mankiewicz, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Elizabeth Henaff, Anna Dyson, Krystal Godri Pollitt

Yale CEA joins UNEP's Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction in Releasing Updates towards Zero Emission Futures for the Built Environment

2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

United Nations Environment Programme

AIChE Annual Meeting, 2017

Phylogenetic and Functional Profiling of the Microbiome Associated with a Phytoremediation System Targeting Air Quality in the Built Environment

Jayamary Divya Ravichandar, Anna Dyson, Cynthia H. Collins (2017)

ASHRAE Topical Conference Proceedings (2022)

Evolving Frameworks Towards Identifying Challenges and Opportunities of Indoor Vegetation Systems

Christina Ciardullo; Andreas Theodoridis; Phoebe Mankeiwitz; Mohamed Aly Etman; Anna Dyson. (2022)

Architecture and Urbanism (2015)

Building Integrated Concentrating Solar Facade and The Active Modular Phytoremediation System

Growth Media Design (2021)

Growth Media Design Within Building-Integrated Green Infrastructure Impacts Indoor Air Bioremediation Performance and Carbon Dioxide Flux Through Water Availability and Plant Development Patterns

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Aleca Borsuk, Christina Ciardullo, Elizabeth Hénaff + Anna Dyson (In preparation 2021)

Submitted to ASHRAE Journal (2021)

Indoor Environmental Parameters: Considering Measures of Microbial Ecology in the Characterization of Indoor Air Quality

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Christina Ciardullo, Andreas Theodoridis, Elizabeth Hénaff + Anna Dyson (In review 2021).

Proceedings of SDEWES. SDEWES, Dobrovnik (2021)

Towards Energy-Positive Buildings Through a Quality-Matched Energy Flow Strategy

Nick Novelli, Justin Shultz, Mohamed Aly Etman, Kenton Phillips, Michael Jensen, Jason Vollen + Anna Dyson (In review 2021)

Proceedings of the XXV International Union of Architect's World Congress, Durban, South Africa, 3-7 August 2014. Ed. Amira Osman, Gerhard Bruyns and Clinton Aigbavboa. Durban: UIA 2014 Durban. pgs.1368-83 (2014)

Building Integrated Coconut Envelope Systems: Rethinking the Role of Low-tech materi

main question

How can we dramatically transform urban environments through building-integrated agriculture?

gallery:

gallery:

team

collaborators

selected

publications

sponsors

Sci Rep 14, 23857 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72341-y

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Elizabeth Z. Lin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Krystal J. Godri Pollitt, Anna H. Dyson and Elizabeth M. Hénaff

Research Directions: Biotechnology Design , Volume 2 , 2024 , e5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/btd.2024.4

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Anna Dyson and Elizabeth Hénaff

International Society of Exposure Science, 2023 Annual Meeting. Chicago, USA

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Elizabeth Lin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Elizabeth Henaff, Krystal Godri Pollitt, Anna Dyson

International Society of Exposure Science, 2022 Annual Meeting. Lisbon, Portugal

Elizabeth Lin, Phoebe Mankiewicz, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Elizabeth Henaff, Anna Dyson, Krystal Godri Pollitt

Yale CEA joins UNEP's Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction in Releasing Updates towards Zero Emission Futures for the Built Environment

United Nations Environment Programme

AIChE Annual Meeting, 2017

Jayamary Divya Ravichandar, Anna Dyson, Cynthia H. Collins (2017)

ASHRAE Topical Conference Proceedings (2022)

Christina Ciardullo; Andreas Theodoridis; Phoebe Mankeiwitz; Mohamed Aly Etman; Anna Dyson. (2022)

Architecture and Urbanism (2015)

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Growth Media Design (2021)

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Aleca Borsuk, Christina Ciardullo, Elizabeth Hénaff + Anna Dyson (In preparation 2021)

Submitted to ASHRAE Journal (2021)

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Christina Ciardullo, Andreas Theodoridis, Elizabeth Hénaff + Anna Dyson (In review 2021).

Proceedings of SDEWES. SDEWES, Dobrovnik (2021)

Nick Novelli, Justin Shultz, Mohamed Aly Etman, Kenton Phillips, Michael Jensen, Jason Vollen + Anna Dyson (In review 2021)

Proceedings of the XXV International Union of Architect's World Congress, Durban, South Africa, 3-7 August 2014. Ed. Amira Osman, Gerhard Bruyns and Clinton Aigbavboa. Durban: UIA 2014 Durban. pgs.1368-83 (2014)