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
| Dec 29, 2014
High-strength aluminum footbridge designed to withstand deep-ocean movement, high wind speeds [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
The metal’s flexibility makes the difference in an oil rig footbridge connecting platforms in the West Philippine Sea. The design solution was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
HDR and Hill International to turn three floors of a jail into a modern, secure healthcare center [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
By bringing healthcare services in house, Dallas County Jail will greatly minimize the security risk and added cost of transferring ill or injured prisoners to a nearby hospital. The project was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
New mobile unit takes the worry out of equipment sterilization during healthcare construction [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Infection control, a constant worry for hospital administrators and clinical staffs, is heightened when the hospital is undergoing a major construction project. Mobile Sterilization Solutions, a mobile sterile-processing department, is designed to simplify the task. The technology was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Startup Solarbox London turns phone booths into quick-charge stations [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
About 8,000 of London’s famous red telephone boxes sit unused in warehouses, orphans of the digital age. Two entrepreneurs plan to convert them into charging stations for mobile devices. Their invention was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Spherical reflectors help spread daylight throughout a college library in Portland, Ore. [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
The 40,000-sf library is equipped with four “cones of light,” spherical reflectors made from extruded aluminum that distribute daylight from the library’s third floor to illuminate the second. The innovation was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Hard hat equipped with smartglass technology could enhance job site management [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Smart Helmet is equipped with an array of cameras that provides 360-degree vision through its glass visor, even in low light. It was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Clayco lends operational support and financing to construction services startups [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Design-build firm Clayco has launched an investment arm called Treehouse Adventures to provide financing and operational infrastructure to startups, including those serving the AEC industry. The new venture was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Reef Worlds to build world’s largest underwater theme park for luxury resort [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Dubai is known for its gargantuan commercial building projects. The latest to be proposed is the world’s largest underwater theme park, designed and built by Reef Worlds. The project was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
New data-gathering tool for retail designers [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
Beacon technology personalizes smartphone messaging, creating a new information resource for store designers. It was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 29, 2014
Leo A Daly's minimally invasive approach to remote field site design [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
For the past six years, Leo A Daly has been designing sites for remote field stations with near-zero ecological disturbance. The firm's environmentally delicate work was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
