From the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition comes a design that uses "mangrove cities" to purify drinking water. Called the Freshwater Skyscraper, French designers have earned special mention in the competition for their creation, which looks to the untrained eye like a series of soap bubbles blown by a child stacked end-on-end.
Design principles surrounding the competition specify that the skyscraper is the primary type of building which can meet the needs of crowded inner cities. Working slightly outside that principle and focusing on the countryside for their imagined creation, designers targeted the one looming problem of the 21st Century: water. According to the World Water Council, more than one out of six people do not have access to safe drinking water.
Most of the water on earth is tied up in oceans, and desalination for use on crops or as drinking water is not yet economically viable. Of the balance, a meager three percent, two thirds is frozen as ice in glaciers and icebergs. The remaining one percent is all that keeps humanity from perishing, and much of this water (64 billion cubic meters, or 70 percent) is tied up in growing food crops.
The Freshwater Skyscraper will address the issue of increasing water scarcity through a process known as transpiration. Unlike desalination, a mechanical process, transpiration occurs when plants "sweat" clean water through their leaves. By planting the bubble-shaped tanks with mangroves - which readily take up brackish water and deliver it as clean water - designers anticipate collecting as much as 30,000 liters (almost 8,000 gallons) per each one-hectare (2.47-acre) tower. That is, the Freshwater Skyscraper will be able to irrigate a one-hectare field of tomatoes per day.
In seeking a site for their Freshwater Skyscraper, designers looked at Almeria Province in Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea - the location where most of the fruits and vegetables destined for European markets are grown. BD+C
Related Stories
Architects | Nov 29, 2021
LRK Names Tony Pellicciotti ‘Managing Principal’ of firm
Pellicciotti is one of LRK’s fourteen principals representing its markets in Memphis, Dallas, Philadelphia, Orlando/Celebration, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Little Rock, and Princeton.
Architects | Nov 23, 2021
HMC names new Director of Design
James Krueger will oversee design and lead strategies to improve the impact of HMC’s work.
Giants 400 | Nov 20, 2021
2021 Parking Structure Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. parking structure sector
PGAL, PCL Construction, and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest parking structure sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Nov 20, 2021
Top 100 Design-Build Construction Firms for 2021
Clayco, Hensel Phelps, ARCO Construction Companies, Swinerton, and Ryan Companies US top the rankings of the nation's largest design-build construction firms for buildings construction work, according to BD+C's 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Nov 19, 2021
2021 Cultural Facilities Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. cultural facilities sector
Gensler, AECOM, Buro Happold, and Arup top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest cultural facilities sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Nov 19, 2021
2021 Convention Center Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. convention and conference facilities sector
Populous, KPFF, Lendlease, and Turner Construction top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest convention and conference facilities architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Nov 18, 2021
2021 Multifamily Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. multifamily building sector
Clark Group, Humphreys and Partners, and Kimley-Horn head BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest multifamily building sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Laboratories | Nov 18, 2021
Tapping into the life sciences building boom
Paul Ferro of Form4 Architecture discusses how developers are pivoting to the life sciences sector, and what that means for construction and adaptive reuse.
2021 Building Team Awards | Nov 17, 2021
Caltech's new neuroscience building unites scientists, engineers to master the human brain
The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena wins a Gold Award in BD+C's 2021 Building Team Awards.
K-12 Schools | Nov 10, 2021
K-12 school design innovation: 'Learning Everywhere' and the mobile classroom
Last September, AIA San Francisco awarded the Professional Category in its 2021 Future Classroom Competition to a five-person team from Culver City, Calif.-based Berliner Architects. The firm was selected for its “Learning Everywhere” idea that features a mobile strategy for education at school, home, on field trips, and in transit. BD+C's John Caulfield discuss that concept with Richard Berliner, AIA, Principal, Berliner Architects.
