Could This "Living Machine" Ecosystem Provide Fresh Water When Sea Levels Rise?

Only this morning the papers were reporting that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is saying that sea levels could rise 22ft by the year 3000, if we don’t sort out those nasty emissions. It makes for grim reading and if it comes true and there’s no Jake Gyllenhaal or Dennis Quaid to come save us, we’re going to need quite a few plan B’s.

These could take the form of new residencies and structures built atop the rising seas to house and accommodate us. Rising to this challenge is Studiomobile who propose their installation Networking Nature which is a “working living machine where nature and built landscape live in symbiosis” and was featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012.

In a future where seawater is a key resource for urban environments, this installation shows an ecosystem that’s sustained through the salty liquid. Fresh water can be extracted from the saline solution using lamps and evaporation to turn the undrinkable seawater into the delicious fresh variety.

But it’s not just meant to be used to sustain one person or a small group, instead it works as part of a larger infrastructure and network that shares the fresh water and supplies it where needed. So it can sustain whole communities when dry land becomes a myth. This Smart Water Network has sensors to determine where water is lacking and using an Arduino board, it activates a pump so that water is provided where needed.

[via Inhabitat]

Images: Studiomobile

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