Future Architecture – “Freshwater Factory”

The Freshwater Factory is a skyscraper design created by Nicolas Chausson, Gaël Desveaux, Jiao Yang Huang and Thomas Jullien that could be used in the future to create fresh water.
Especially for our 3D students, here is one of the designer’s 3D models of the structure:

The tower is made of several circular tanks filled with seawater that has been brought up from the sea below by tidal powered pumps. These pumps, and the pipes that deliver the water to the spheres are incorporated inside the structure of the tower. Each tank is planted with mangroves, plants that can grow on brackish water (salted water) and sweat fresh water. This fresh water then evaporates inside the circular tanks and condensates on the walls where it is then collected in a tank. Due to the height of the tower these tanks can then, using nothing more than gravity, distribute the fresh water to the fields surrounded the tower which will grow crops. The tower could produce up to 30,000 liters of fresh water a day which is equivalent to watering a 10,000 square meter field of tomatoes a day!

The structure is a fantastic use of gravity, tidal flow and the spherical shape (which allows gravity to make sure no water is wasted).

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see these structures at work!