Indus

Indus is a wall, composed of modular tiles, that cleans wastewater. Designed by a team of researchers at UCL’s Bio-ID Lab, it enables rural artisan communities to regenerate water for their manufacturing processes.

The shape of each tile is inspired by the structure of a leaf. Water flows over a series of vein-like channels that are shaped by an algorithm in order to optimise their ability to absorb pollutants.

Each vein is filled with microscopic algae cells within a hydrogel made of seaweed. As the water flows over a tile, the algae absorb substances such as cadmium, a naturally occurring toxic metal that is common in industrial workplaces.

Designed by Shneel Malik, Dr. Brenda Parker and Prof. Marcos Cruz (Bio-ID Lab, UCL) with Richard Miller (Froyle Tiles).