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 8, 2011
Keast & Hood Co. part of Statue of Liberty renovation team
Keast & Hood Co., is the structural engineer-of-record for the year-long $27.25 million renovation of the Statue of Liberty.
| Dec 8, 2011
HDR opens office in Shanghai
The office, located in the Chong Hing Finance Center in Shanghai’s busy Huangpu District, will support HDR’s design efforts throughout Asia.
| Dec 8, 2011
HOK elevates the green office standard
Firm achieves LEED Platinum certification in New York office that overlooks Bryant Park.
| Dec 7, 2011
ACE Mentor Program receives Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring
Thornton Tomasetti founding principal Charles H. Thornton responsible for launching ACE.
| Dec 7, 2011
NSF International qualifies first wallcoverings distributor to the New American National Standard for Sustainable Wallcoverings
TRI-KES demonstrates leadership in environmental stewardship as the first distributor to earn qualification.
| Dec 7, 2011
DPR Foundation awards $590,000 to youth organizations
Grants will fund programs for disadvantaged kids across six states.
| Dec 7, 2011
Autodesk agrees to acquire Horizontal Systems
Acquisition extends and accelerates cloud-based BIM solutions for collaboration, data, and lifecycle management.
| Dec 7, 2011
ICS Builders and BKSK Architects complete St. Hilda’s House in Manhattan
The facility's design highlights the inherent link between environmental consciousness and religious reverence.
| Dec 6, 2011
Construction industry leaders gather for forum on diversity
Declared a “groundbreaking” event for the industry, Gilbane’s First Annual National Partners Council Forum addressed diversity and inclusion as well as building partnerships with minority, veteran, and women-owned businesses.
