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Ekokook
Victor Massip and Laurent Lebot, designers at French studio Faltazi, have designed a conceptual system where water is recycled and waste is broken down by worms inside the kitchen
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Called Ekokook, the system is about trying to come up with a way to upgrade existing housing without advocating complete reconstruction. Each wall, each balcony, each window, each door, each shutter can serve as a support for an eco-installation. The design grew out of an experimental approach based on the analysis of the nerve centre of every home – the kitchen. It’s based on four essentials – waste management, kitchen health, reduction/consumption of energy and intelligent storage. It has built-in fittings for selecting, processing and storing all kinds of wastes including organic, solid and liquid.
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Three built-in micro-plants for three recycling functions
The kitchen is where most household wastes are produced. If waste management is to be effective at both the individual and the collective level, selection and processing must begin as soon as the waste product appears. When we are peeling carrots, for example, we should be able to dispose of peelings straight away by emptying them into the earth worm composter direct from the work surface. Similarly, when we wash salad leaves, we should be able to choose to save the water for watering household plants. Simple actions like these must be encouraged and made easy by adequate fittings. The same goes for the disposal of solid wastes.
Micro-plant 1
Solid wastes: selecting, processing, storage
Solid wastes have no smell. This means that they can be kept longer, once their volume has been reduced to a minimum. On the scale of the city, this enables council trucks to collect waste less frequently, which means less cost for the community, less noise nuisance, and less atmospheric pollution. We have broken down the receptacle for solid wastes into five units for processing glass, paper, plastics, metals and miscellaneous waste. The volume of each unit corresponds to dimensions that suit an average family (two adults & two children). Units can be customized to suit user profiles and to interact with services offered by the community.
We have opted for a system of components organized by bloc and by function: in the high part are different hatches, and in the lower part are the units for reducing volumes, and storage containers on rollers. The devices we propose to reduce the volume of wastes are machines activated by hand: a steel ball, like the ball in a pinball machine, to break glass, an endless screw like a nut-cracker to compress cans and water bottles, and a manual shredder-crusher to shred paper before turning it into briquettes.
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Micro-plant 2
Water cycle: use, collecting, recycling
Inspired by real-size civil engineering works for controlling water, such as locks and dykes, which move masses of water for irrigation, we have built in a double sink for retention, with an intermediate reservoir situated below the sink and two pitchers that collect kitchen water that has no grease scum. This enables users to recycle clean water by using it to water household plants. The dishwasher and steam oven can also be filled with water kept in the intermediate reservoir.
A double plug is installed in the sink bottom. The user can direct the water in the sink to its destination simply by activating one plug or the other. A filter removes particles suspended in the water to ensure that it is clean and of good quality. A simple device like this enables a saving of up to 15 litres per day, which is equivalent to what is needed to run a dishwasher load. The entire intermediate reservoir can be lifted out to be washed, in order to meet standard hygiene norms.
Micro-plant 3
Processing & recycling organic wastes: the earth worm composter
My garbage bin is alive! As its name implies, the earth worm composter uses earth worms to break down organic wastes. All sorts of green wastes are produced in the kitchen: fruit and vegetable peelings, scrapings, left-overs, etc. This device aims at processing these wastes as close as possible to the place where they are produced – in the kitchen. Bringing real live earth worms into the kitchen calls for the design of a container to rationalize manipulation. It must be sealed, autonomous, and simple to manage. We propose a container unit in the form of a drum that rotates a notch day by day. Wastes shift gradually and as they are broken down and after three months maturing are sifted into a drawer as ‘lumbri’compost’. Liquid effluent drains into two pitchers. Diluted with ten parts water, it makes a rich liquid plant food ideal for indoor and outdoor plants.
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