SimBioBrick 2 is a "Portable Bioremediation Technology for Urban Farming and Environmental Justice" and addresses the environmental and health challenges posed by soil and air pollution in Philadelphia, particularly affecting vulnerable communities. It develops portable fungi-plant living brick systems that support greenery, air and soil bioremediation, and urban agriculture. Bricks are designed to trap heavy metals, capture carbon, and augment the green canopy, ultimately mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change and environmental injustice. The project is currently scaling up fabrication by additively manufacturing brick designs from clay to deploy SimBioBrick 2 in Fishtown, Philadelphia, as a multifunctional system of soil health pavers, traffic carbon dioxide absorption walls, play and gathering support structures, and vertical food farming. The team collaborates with plant biology and soil toxicology teams to identify deployment sites challenged by industrial and traffic pollution, and will collect sustainable agriculture data in next steps.
Leads: Ji Yoon Bae (PhD ARCH), Joyce Zhang (MArch Thesis), and Dr. Laia Mogas-Soldevila.
Funding: This research was funded in 2024 by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design's Urban Agriculture Grant by the Carl H. Goldsmith Fund for Energy and Farming Research through their Agriculture and Access&Equity Tracks.
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