Can a Hackathon save the world?
22 March 2016 - Ekaterina Larsson

Can a Hackathon save the world?

How do you help a ridesharing service be more visible to the person standing on the street who wants to use it right away?  With a just-in-time type application i.e. the ride requester stands on a bus stop and can see approaching vehicles offering rides?

Can city sensors use the existing infrastructure and collect data about noise, pollution, etc? Can this sensor driven data collection be done in a very cost effective way and help us monitor the urban landscape?
How can digital solutions help reducing driving in home care and helping the elderly? Just substitute the car with a bike?

Is building high-rises such a bad thing? What if a high-rise’s extra façade area could be turned into an environmental asset rather than a problem?

These four challenges were presented to 100 people from the fields of computer science, engineering, architecture and storytelling at the Green Hackathon Smart Cities Stockholm. These 100 people formed teams, picked a challenge and had 24 hours to come out with a concept or a product solving the problems presented. What a challenge!

I went to the final presentations, talked to some of the teams and decided to interview one team as I liked their solution to the challenge. I picked the Green ++ team, consisting of Isabel Enerson, Leonel Campos, Valerija Stepanova, Hanna Brandner and Maksym Kunytsia. The team presented a solution for the Nacka Green Walls and Roofs Challenge – integrated environments for storm water control, energy improvements, education, and community development. I met over a glass of wine with Isabel Enerson at Impact Hub Stockholm. Isabel is an American and pursuing a Masters in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable infrastructure at KTH. We sat down to talk about the team’s solution, the challenges and whether a Hackathon could save the world.

So why a Hackathon?
I like to collaborate and believe that the best solutions often come from interdisciplinary brainstorming, so the hackathon was an opportunity I could not pass. One of the highlights of my undergraduate education in the US at the University of Maryland was a two-year, interdisciplinary competition to design and build a solar home, that also treated 80% of wastewater onsite. The project was quite successful and inspired me to pursue integrated environmental solutions at a master’s level, so I’m inclined to participate in interdisciplinary sustainability competitions.

We built our team for the Green Hackathon rather organically. Although we all come from two similar master’s programs at KTH Sustainable Technology and Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure, we actually have rather diverse backgrounds. Leonel is from the US and has a background in Geology and Environmental Science, Maksym – a Heat and Power Engineer from Ukraine, Valeria is a Chemical Engineer from Latvia, and Hanna is from the UK with a Civil and Environmental Engineering background. A diversity which was great for brainstorming and coming up with different ideas.

What were the challenges?
The biggest challenges were time, deciding on a solution and learning how to visualize our idea. We actually brainstormed to about 11 pm at night, before deciding on which solution we would pursue. We had also never designed 3D representations of buildings before, so half of us actually learned Google sketch-up the morning of the final presentations.

What is your solution for the Nacka Green Walls and Roofs Challenge?
We decided to challenge the divide between the natural and the built environment by creating a system of solutions that reflect the concept of an integrated environment. We see integrated environments as a key component to creating sustainable environments – multiple recent studies have shown that people perform better after exposure to nature. So integrated, green cities are beneficial not only from an infrastructure or ecological perspective but in a social way as well.

To create an integrated environment within the Nacka design specifications and goals we came up with three concepts: façade rain chains, rooftop greenhouses and interconnected rooftop parks.

1. Façade rain chains are very large, modified versions of traditional Japanese rain chains, which traditionally replace gutters. However, we wanted to turn the façade into a filter instead of a wall, so we just enlarged the traditional 5-8cm cups into 50-80 cm cups, cut them in half, turned them into living filters and affixed them to the side of the building in ‘chains’. The idea being that rain hitting the side of the building will be captured and slowly filtered through this system, before being reused, infiltrated into surrounding land or released into the harbor.

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2. Greenhouses on rooftops is not a new idea, nor is farming on rooftops, but to our knowledge these concepts have not been combined with that of a water tower. We proposed to enclose the rooftop to create a year-round growing space and retreat for residents. Next, capture all of the storm water that makes contact with the roof and store it at the top of the building, so it can either be used to water the pants or released at pressure to supplement water for toilet flushing or washing clothes within the building. The associated rooftop greenhouses could be designed for use with aquaponics or traditional gardening methods.

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3. We also pitched the concept of interconnecting all of the roofs in the project with walkways and having each green roof provide a specific social or ecological function, one could have beehives, another meditation spaces or an environmental education center.

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After I spoke to you during the break you also won first place for the Nacka Green Walls and Roofs Challenge, congratulations! So what happens now?
In the spring we will meet the Nacka Kommun Sustainability Group and discuss what happens next. We have also been invited to present our idea at a SWECO lunch seminar and are considering developing façade rain chains as marketable drainage system.

Do you believe a Hackathon can help save the world?
YES! I think the concept of hacking – solving problems by applying data and tools that already exist in new and innovative ways — is crucial to solving many current issues. I also believe that it is incredibly important to have a forum where ideas that may initially sound crazy or impossible can be exchanged and seriously discussed, so we don’t place artificial boundaries and limitations on ourselves and our futures.

Author

Ekaterina Larsson is a freelancing Digital Communications Consultant and Marketing Manager who has worked with organisations including Stockholm International Water Institute and Greenpeace.