Hydro-harvest: towards a more sustainable, water treatment facility
Date
2012-07-12
Authors
Herbert, Brett
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
My architectural thesis title Hydro-Harvest, is an exploration into developing a more sustainable, community driven, water treatment facility, that makes use of a constructed Water Hyacinth filtration farm to treat polluted water. The thesis aims to explore and understand the vital role water plays within the Environmental, Social and Economic aspects of human life and aims to merge these three spatial agendas together, in order to create a more sustainable water treatment system.
Essentially the project challenges the single minded approach typically embodied by engineering interventions and poses three important questions, namely:
If we know water to be inextricably linked to a vast array of aspects concerning human life – Why is it when it comes to treating the substance, are these Interventions:
- Generally unsustainably funded to only treat water and provide no social or economic spin-offs?
- Usually located well outside the public realm or even hidden underground?
- And finally, why are they often approached from the perspective of applying necessary technology and infrastructure rather
than a site specific service, that can become a perpetuated benefit to the surrounding community?
Hydro-Harvest proposes an all inclusive resolution that aims to purify the polluted water of Wemmer Pan by creating a water focused landscape that improves the water quality while simultaneously providing moments for social interaction and economic development to occur.
The project aims to demonstrate how the inclusion of clever spatial planning, has the ability to maximize the potential of water and ultimately create a facility that not only purifies it but is able to service many other aspects of human life. (Fundamentally allowing a water treatment application to be so much more beneficial to its surrounding community)