Xero Cool
How to Grow a Refrigerator
This refrigerator is built by bacteria and powered by the sun.
Every time you open your fridge, you are connected to a global system whose carbon footprint exceeds that of every country on Earth except China and the United States. Refrigeration is estimated to be responsible for eight percent of global emissions, split between energy-intensive lifespans and environmentally devastating materials. That is roughly 3X more than the entire aviation industry. On a heating planet, the way we produce cold degrades far-reaching ecosystems and actually makes the Earth hotter.
Xero Cool is a solar chiller insulated with bacterial cellulose xerogel, a highly porous solid with superior thermal resistance. The project connects new findings in lightweight bio-derived insulation materials to emerging science in heat-driven refrigeration technology leveraging nontoxic refrigerants. It imagines a future where we collaborate with more-than-human organisms to create performative materials and harness the abundance of solar energy to power ecologically benevolent technologies. Fundamentally, Xero Cool questions how communities might wield power through food sovereignty and localised material intelligence when critical infrastructure like cooling space is decoupled from global architects of capitalist distribution.
This project was developed at Central Saint Martins MA Biodesign with the support of the Francis Crick Institute, in collaboration with the Making Lab. Thank you to Albane Imbert, head of the Making Lab, and her team Christina Dix, Federico Nebuloni, Ross Burdis, Simon Tupin and Xavier Cano Ferrer
Softer Refrigeration
The modern refrigerator is a capsule of neoliberal material culture. It is a heavy metal frame wrapped in petrochemical plastic, insulated with expanded plastic foam, assembled from globally sourced components. Many older models pump fluorinated greenhouse gases responsible for ozone degradation. These gases trap 140- to 2,400-times more heat within the Earth’s atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Originally developed in partnership with energy suppliers, refrigerators are one of the few constantly-running appliances connected to centralised energy grids, accounting for 10-15% of average domestic energy bills.
The appliance’s form–largely consistent since its introduction in the early 20th century–perpetuates a legacy of gendered domestic labour and aesthetics of sanitation through exclusion. Early advertisements clearly prey on guilt-driven motivations reinforcing middle class motherhood, spurred by fear of dirt as germ theory entered the public consciousness. Associating status with clean, white surfaces served as aesthetic enforcement of socioeconomic and racial stratification.
Why do we cool space in a way that makes the Earth hotter?
Why do we associate health with objects that remove human and more-than-human opportunities for thriving? How has our ability to keep perishable goods fresher for longer eroded local food sovereignty through long, fragile supply chains? How has an aesthetic of cleanliness allowed wasteful practices to fester?
The proposed artefact is a speculation on what might happen when we make something that has always been very heavy, very light. Xero Cool questions what effects follow when we introduce softness to spaces that have historically been hard and antiseptic.
Mesoporous Structure
Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the final material achieved a mesoporous structure. The many tiny air pockets trapped within xerogel give it the lightweight insulative properties desirable for this application.
