TrafficMoss is a speculative exploration of how we could control the traffic in a urban environment in symbiosis with the public green spaces.
TrafficMoss is a bio-engineered moss that grows in presence of pollution (NOx and particulate). It warns passerbys about the pollution level of a particular street inviting them to take an alternative route, acting as a physical data visualisation device.
If the pollution level is particularly high it grows physically blocking the access to the street, forcing the traffic to reroute to another street.
We imagine for the future city to grow organically with its urban green and for the traffic to move at a more natural pace.
The concept was developed in collaboration with the Synthetic Biology Research Lab at Imperial College. We worked side by side with the scientists in the lab to understand how we could apply their technology in the future.
We analysed weak signals and through a process of forecasting and back-casting we identified how synthetic biology could be applied in the context of traffic management on a urban scale. We pinpointed 3 possible horizons:
