CREO DESIGN LLC

Area of Research:
Manufacturing

Location:
San Francisco

Built environments are often not compatible for plant ecosystems. Architect and landscape designer, Hooman Koliji, founded Creo Design (CREO) with the goal of creating a future where nature is abundant and an integral part of the built environment at the human scale. Working with plant scientists, environmental ecologists, and engineers, CREO is building synthetic living ecologies. In other words, they are employing intelligent technologies to understand nature and re-create environments for plant habitats.

As residents at the Autodesk Technology Center in San Francisco, CREO is working to transform the way we live by creating living systems that utilize data and artificial intelligence along with integrated hardware. This technology provides a platform for plant habitats and growth patterns, and has applications across many sectors such as AgTech, Real Estate Tech, Smart Cities, and beyond.

At the technology center, CREO has been working on several aspects of technology and product development. While Yildirim Yazganarikan is involved in the entire design development of projects, Negar Kalantar (also co-director of the Digital Craft lab at CCA) directs the integration of technology and modular systems, and Alireza Borhani oversees system design development and manufacturing processes. In terms of technology, the team built a fully working prototype of airIQ, an industrial, vertical living system that purifies air through the organic process of bio-filtration. It employs automation in the water reservoir and circulation system, development of a hybrid grow medium that is optimized for hydroponics and air purification, and integration of air quality sensors in the system. Based on the data captured by airIQ, the team has further improved the design and the next iteration, Bio-Brick™, is in production.

The team also refined work on their award-winning Eco-Curtain system, which was originally developed as a vertical hydroponic system to grow food indoors. The refinements resulted in increased flexibility of how the system can be installed and used. Through their work in the residency program, this product has been introduced to market.

The Autodesk Foundation has been providing support to the team, and through feedback from the Autodesk Sustainability team, CREO developed and is currently testing, Bio-Bulb™, a completely autonomous, modular design with integrated sensors, irrigation, and IoT technology that can create and optimize habitat environments for plants.