Volvo is 3D printing mangrove-textured tiles to save our oceans - Yanko Design

An unlikely yet enthusiastic new member of the save-the-oceans motion is the Swedish carmaker Volvo. Committed to the concept of 'omtanke', the Swedish word for 'caring' and 'consideration', Volvo is partnering with the Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences and the Reef Design Lab to brand our oceans healthy again.

Research shows that every minute, a truckload of plastic waste material is dumped in our oceans, and mankind has reached a signal where reversing that activity is far from imaginable. Volvo's endeavor towards making our oceans good for you again starts with its ban on single-use plastics globally across all offices, canteens, factories, and events by the cease of 2019, but its larger plan is to reverse the negative effects of plastic pollution rather than only cut down on it. In comes the Living Seawall, Volvo'due south project to repopulate micro-biodiversity in the bounding main.

More than half of Sydney's shoreline is artificial, inhibiting the growth of microorganisms that keep our oceans healthy. Volvo plans to spurt the growth of these microorganisms past bringing a touch on of biomimicry to these artificial seawalls with the Living Seawall project. The Living Seawall is comprised of hexagonal tessellated tiles that sport a complex, interwoven construction that mimic the roots of a mangrove forest. The concrete tiles are offset cast using a 3D printed mold, and then mounted on man-made seawalls across Sydney, promoting the growth of microorganisms (they take to the tiles equally they would to mangrove roots) that constantly feed on ocean water, purifying it of toxins, chemicals, and even minute particulate matter. Each tile provides an aplenty corporeality of surface surface area to business firm billions of microorganisms that work in unison, and this wall of l tessellated tiles are kept there for a period of 20 years as scientists and researchers study and monitor organism growth and its event on h2o quality for the decades to come.

Information technology isn't feasible or even practical to significantly remove pollutants from water bodies as vast every bit the body of water, but Volvo's plan is to promote the growth of flora and fauna that volition empower the ocean's biodiversity so the ocean can actively purify itself. Check out the pattern process video below.

Designers: Volvo, Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences & Reef Pattern Lab.