January 12, 2015 at 18:52Bamboo tower that draws water from the air
Architect Arturo Vittori and his agency Architecture and Vision have developed a way to supply dry African countries with water. The WakaWater Tower (named after the tree of the waka Ficus family ) extracts water by condensing it from the air. In March 2014, the agency presented a life-size prototype of the tower, and now, having improved and supplemented it, they went to Kickstarter in search of financing the construction of these towers in Ethiopia. In one day, the project already scored $ 20,000 out of the requested $ 100,000.
The tower is 10 meters high (more than two times lower than the tree whose name it received: waka, or ficus vasta, can reach 25 m in height) and 4 meters in diameter are proposed to be built from bamboo, braided with a mesh of polyester. It looks like the installation of a modern artist, but besides this, according to the creators, it is capable of condensing from 50 to 100 liters daily. The principle of operation is the long-known " air well ".
The cost of building the tower is about $ 1000. It has no moving parts and does not need a power source. The tower is delivered to the site, disassembled into five parts, and assembled in less than an hour. Due to its unusual appearance, the tower can serve as a gathering place and communication of people - as if it really was a large and sprawling tree, giving coolness to the heat.
