It was hard to miss Philips’ Microbial Home when it was announced in 2011. It was everywhere. Like me, you probably appreciated the idea of domestic ecosystem, thought it looked a bit over-designed, and turned your attention elsewhere.

It was hard to miss Philips’ Microbial Home when it was announced in 2011. It was everywhere. Like me, you probably appreciated the idea of domestic ecosystem, thought it looked a bit over-designed, and turned your attention elsewhere.
Fortunately, the Philips website has full descriptions of the Microbial Home project as well as some generously high-res images so I’d like to take a longer look at the concepts involved. I’ll first paraphrase some things from the website and then let’s talk about them.
The Microbial Home
The Microbial Home takes a systemic approach to many of the domestic processes we take for granted and questions how we deal with resources. It’s a proposal for an integrated cyclical ecosystem where the output of each function is the input to another. The home is seen as a biological machine to filter, process and recycle what we conventionally think of as waste – sewage, effluent, garbage, waste water. It proposes strategies for developing a balanced microbial ecosystem in the home.
The Biodigester Island
The Biodigester Island is a repositionable kitchen island having a chopping surface with a vegetable waste grinder, gas cooking range, a glass tank showing energy reserves and glass indicators showing pressure, and the volume and readiness of compost sludge.
‘Bio-gas’ is produced by a culture of suitable bacteria living on organic waste material from the home. The gas they generate is collected and burnt. This arrangement is called a methane digester and has been used in various configurations for centuries.
The gas from the methane digester is fed to the cooking range and gas lights. Water pipes are preheated by the digester and channeled to other components in the Microbial Home system. The digester needs a constant supply of waste material and 