The architects have created a little slice of paradise in the city by building artificial streams that curve through the property, almost making it feel like the residents live in a much greener Japanese version of Venice or Amsterdam. The placid body of water squeezes through the spaces between buildings, leaving slices of lawn for picnic benches, café tables, and beautiful blooming cherry trees. The precise edging and perfectly laid sod make it clear that it’s a man-made feature, but the effect nonetheless remains. There’s just something so relaxing about gazing out at the water from inside.

Take a glance at the photos of the warm wood-lined interiors, massive sliding glass walls, and natural daylight, and you might think to yourself, “yet another luxury home that’s unattainable for the vast majority of people on Earth.” That’s usually true with projects like this, but Awazuku House isn’t a private home — it’s a series of rental houses sharing the tranquility of this setting with a broader range of people, not just the wealthy owners. Set on the edge of the city, the complex offers a peaceful place to live with close proximity to the perks of the city.

“Four houses for rent in Koda-Cho, Nukata-gun, Aichi Prefecture, located in an area far from the city center with an impressive landscape of beautiful woodlands, temples, fields, curving paths, streams, and hedges. How could these locational elements be connected to life? At the same time, the real estate agent told us that the rental stock in this area was already saturated with regular apartments and condominiums,” the architects explain. “So, we began to conceive that we could rent out a comfortable life here, taking advantage of the rich environment, which spurred the idea of ‘lending.’”

“Lending a room — lending a building — lending with land — lending an existing well, lending a field next to the main building — supporting the farm work of the parents of the main building, then ‘renting the environment,’ which eventually led to ‘renting the environment’ including human relations. Each wing of the building has a loft, and the windows of every floor have a view of the back mountain. The height and position of each building and the direction of the roof slope are determined so that the views do not overlap with each other and interfere with the line of sight from the loft floor.”

The architects repurposed stone from an existing stone wall once piled up around the site as soil retaining walls. A pillar and beam from the home that already existed on the property has now become a series of benches along the waterways. Hedges help regulate the flow line of the water and ensure privacy. The water itself comes from the old well, which is no longer in use as potable water. Now, it’s both a beautiful visual feature and a source of emergency water supply in the case of a water shutoff.

The post Artificial Streams Run Through This Rental Home Complex in Japan first appeared on Dornob.

India experienced a record high heat wave this past spring, with temperatures reaching upwards of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This led to a massive landfill fire outside of Delhi that burned for weeks, and even caused overheated birds to fall from the skies.

While modern air conditioning systems exist in Indian cities, the majority of the population is still without access to such technology. And since the greenhouse gases emitted by AC units contribute to global warming, trying to blanket the country with them may not be the best solution anyways.

That’s where Ant Studio’s eco-friendly idea comes in: using recirculated water to evaporate and cool the air as it continually flows down a beehive-shaped stack of clay tubes.

Evaporative cooling techniques date back to the ancient Egyptians. They would fan porous jars of water in their chambers, enjoying some temperature relief as the evaporating water took some of the oppressive heat with it. The Romans also employed water and clay to cool their houses, allowing the liquid to course through pipes in their walls.

Building a prototype of their brainchild outside the Deki Electronics factory in Uttar Pradesh, India, Ant Studio inserted cylindrical clay tubes into a rounded steel frame positioned on top of brick and tile basin. The Beehive’s water pump continually sends recycled water from the industrial plant up to the top of the structure, where it then flows down the surface of the clay. The multitude of clay pipes provides a larger surface area, increasing the cooling effect. Temperature measurements showed that the Beehive reduced the surrounding air to 97 degrees Fahrenheit from its previous 107 degrees.

After carefully studying various materials, Ant Studio chose clay as a material for the beehive because of its hygroscopic, or water attracting, properties. The designers found that clay carries a negative charge that bonds with the positive pole of a water molecule, allowing it to absorb water in both vapor and liquid states. Additionally, clay is completely recyclable, as it contains no complex chemicals or components.

The entire system is energy efficient and less expensive than traditional air conditioning. The use of recycled water from the factory’s existing supply minimizes waste. The water tank only needs topping off roughly once a month ,and the recirculating pump uses a small amount of electricity, making the Beehive a very economical cooling mechanism.

In areas where electricity is unavailable, the system could also be converted to a “zero-energy” model, with water being manually poured over the pots once or twice a day. While it would not have the same cooling power, it would have some effect and could still be easily built and maintained from local resources.

Ant Studio is also excited about employing pottery as part of the art/cooling device as a way of reviving what it sees as a fading ancient art. If the Beehive were to gain widespread traction, it could generate more work in the pottery market and help train new artisans in the trade.

The post This Terracotta Pipe Art Doubles as a Sustainable Cooling System first appeared on Dornob.

As you can see, the Pontos looks a lot like a tent in the shape of a kayak. It has a similar lightweight frame sheathed in waterproof nylon and an inflatable seat that closely resembles a sleeping pad. That was part of the inspiration behind this unique design. The creators wanted performance on the water and packability on land, perfect for traveling or impulsive paddles after work. And it doesn’t just fit inside your car – it fits in your closet, suitcase, and even your backpack, just one-third the size and weight of the next-smallest portable kayak when packed down.

“We believe that the benefits of outdoor recreation and a connection with nature should be available to everyone, and we’re here to help knock down some traditional barriers,” the creators write on Indiegogo. “For paddle sports, those barriers are often storing, transporting, and deploying your vessel. We’ve simplified all of these by combining the concept of a skin on frame boat with new durable lightweight materials. At just seven pounds, Pontos kayaks are far lighter than existing folding and inflatable kayak options, which weigh anywhere from 20 to 45+ pounds, and [they’re] more affordable, too! With a pack down size similar to a two person tent, Pontos is the first truly packable kayak.”

Naturally, a kayak this lightweight is designed for calm waters, not whitewater conditions. Those who prefer the latter will have to stick to their more conventional kits for now. But a good deal of thought has gone into the design to make it just as reliable and easy to use as a standard kayak. The lightweight carbon fiber frame, which consists of 18-inch sections connected with shock cord, gives the boat its structure. Once on the water, the “keel pole” presses the TPU-bonded nylon shell just enough into the water to provide excellent tracking. Other portable kayaks are often flat on the bottom, which causes fishtailing as you paddle.

The Pontos’ shell easily pulls over the assembled frame and zips along the top, so it takes just a few minutes to put it together. The 210 denier nylon used for the shell also has some advantages over the heavy plastic usually used for inflatable kayaks. Inflatables are generally hard to pack down to a small size and even harder to get completely dry after use, which makes them prone to developing mold. On top of that, inflatable packrafts also require an additional device for inflation – or a serious test of your lung capacity after a hike.

Currently, the Pontos is available for pre-order via Indiegogo for $497, a 13 percent discount off the expected retail price of $575. It comes in five shell styles in shades of beige, green, blue, and yellow. The crowdfunding campaign will raise funds to order the components and hire a team to finish production, and the boats are expected to ship by June.

The post At 7 Pounds, This Might Be the Lightest, Most Portable Kayak Ever first appeared on Dornob.

Designed to be used in the home, Kara Pure is an air-to-water filtration system that also happens to dehumidify and filter the air while it’s producing clean water. If you’ve ever owned a dehumidifier, you’re probably familiar with the way these machines produce large quantities of water that has to be drained away. The water usually isn’t drinkable or reusable due to the way the machines process it, which seems like a waste. It was just a matter of time before somebody came up with a way to change that. Kara Pure operates much like a conventional home dehumidifier, but it puts the water through a filtration process that not only cleans the water, but makes it healthier to drink, too.

How the Kara Pure Works

The Kara Pure water machine draws air through a four-level filtration system to remove impurities, heavy metals, and particles while extracting water. The purified air is released back into the room, and the contaminants are trapped by the filters. Smart sensors turn off when the humidity in the room drops below a comfortable 25 percent. The water then goes through a multistage filtration and purification process, including a UV-C sterilizer in the water reservoir to keep the water fresh and clean. The water is automatically sterilized every four hours.

A built-in ionizer separates water into its acidic and alkaline parts, which improves the taste. The machine also adds seven essential natural minerals to the water: calcium magnesium, lithium, zinc, selenium, strontium, and metasilicic acid. This mimics the natural components of spring water. Alkaline water is believed to have health benefits like neutralizing acid in the bloodstream and slowing bone loss, though scientists are still divided on these claims.

“Only by bringing together a team of professional engineers and advisors from different industries was it possible to develop a technology that can produce up to 2.5 gallons of safe drinking water from the air,” the startup explains. “We want to decrease dependence on groundwater by fully tapping into air-water with Kara Pure to provide everyone access to premium quality local alkaline drinking water.”

Always Have Clean Water on Hand

If you already have access to good quality drinking water from a tap, a machine like the Kara Pure might not be necessary, though it’s a great alternative to having bottled water delivered for a drink cooler. Since it only produces 2.5 gallons a day, it’s not ideal for community spaces like offices, but it can augment fresh water supply in the average home. If more people relied on machines like these instead of bottled water, we could eliminate a lot of plastic waste.

The stainless steel machine is about the size of a standard water cooler. During a recent round of crowdfunding on Indiegogo, the Kara Pure raised over $1 million USD, unlocking some handy new features like hot and cold water taps. Backers scored their own units for as little as $599, but it looks like the retail price will ultimately be quite high at $3,499. That’s probably the biggest drawback of the machine: it would be most useful for people who can’t afford those prices.

For those who can afford to spring for the machine, the Kara Pure offers an environmentally friendly way to dehumidify and purify the air while producing clean drinking water, essentially replacing three separate household appliances. That’s definitely not a bad deal, and though it requires power and thus wouldn’t work in a power outage, it would also offer the security of access to clean water in the event of a water outage.

Like similar machines in production all over the world, the Kara Pure offers additional proof that this kind of technology works. It would be great to see more companies using it to produce larger machines for communities dealing with issues like contaminated water or too little water to go around.

The post This Home Appliance Makes Fresh Drinking Water Out of Thin Air first appeared on Dornob.

“If we think outside the box, feces has precious value to make energy and manure,” Cho told Reuters. “I have put this value into ecological circulation.”

The BeeVi toilet (a portmanteau of the words “bee” and “vision”) uses a vacuum pump to send feces to an underground storage tank without the use of water. In the tank, microorganisms break the waste down into methane, which in turn supplies energy for the building and powers a gas stove, a hot water boiler, and a solid oxide fuel cell. The average person produces 500 grams of feces per day, which can be converted to 50 liters of methane gas, generating 0.5kWh of electricity. That’s roughly the amount you need to drive an electric car about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles). Essentially, this means we’re all flushing valuable material down the toilet every day. Why not make money off it instead?

So far, the project is paying off. Students who might have been hesitant to use the toilet without an incentive are now lining up to get their Ggool. The toilet provides a QR code after each use, which can then be redeemed at the “feces market” for stuff like fruit and instant cup noodles. Maybe the term “feces market” is a tad unnecessary, but hey, it’s getting the project global attention, and that’s what counts. Unsurprisingly, this story has resulted in headlines like “This Toilet Turns Your Sh*t into Sh*tcoins” and “Crap to Crypto.”

“I had only ever thought that feces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me,” postgraduate student Heo Hui-jin told Reuters at the Ggool market. “I even talk about feces during mealtimes to think about buying any book I want.”

It might be funny and a little gross, but the BeeVi toilet could make a big impact, especially in Korea, where water is scarce. North Korea in particular has suffered a lack of rural water supply exacerbated by recent heat waves, putting future crop harvests in peril. Even highly efficient toilets use 1.28 gallons of water or more per flush, and most people flush their toilets at least five times per day. Toilets like the BeeVi would not only eliminate all that water usage, but produce renewable energy at the same time.

Professor Cho Jae-weon directs the Convergence Research Center, named “Science Walden,” which focuses on the overlap of science and the arts, and has designed small water purification units that operate without electricity for distribution to villages in various countries. He’s also one of the founding members of North Korea Water Society under the Ministry of Unification to research potential ways to collaborate on water issues in both Koreas.

The post This Waterless Toilet Makes Cryptocurrency Out of Human Waste first appeared on Dornob.

A new video from UK bathroom supply store QS Supplies illustrates 500 years of “evo-loo-tion” in 90 seconds flat. Starting in the year 1520, this brief history of the bathroom tracks major developments like sewer systems, running water, toilet paper, and the introduction of matching accoutrements. Though this UK-centric history is limited to the Western world, ignoring earlier advancements of sewer systems and bidets across the globe, it’s still an interesting glimpse at how this essential space has changed over time.

1520-1620: You Only Bathed Alone if You Were Fancy

For much of human history, people had little choice but to embrace their natural funk in between rare visits to a public bath, and it wasn’t uncommon to relieve yourself just about anywhere outdoors. The whole reason perfumes were developed (and considered a luxury) was to combat the general stench of body odor and human waste in the streets. If you were among the upper classes, you at least had a scented handkerchief to hold to your nose when necessary, and by the 16th century, you might have been lucky enough to have a bathtub at home, too.

During this period, the wealthy enjoyed freestanding wooden bathtubs filled with water heated in a cauldron, often placed near a fireplace for warmth. Castles were newly equipped with “garderobes,” which were basically upper-level turrets with holes in the floor that emptied into cesspools, moats, or just the ground. A jug and basin were used to wash your hands afterward.

1620-1720: Chamber Pots and Slight Tub Upgrades

A hundred years later, many people in cities were doing their business indoors. Now in widespread use, the chamber pot introduced a lot more convenience, whether you had an outhouse or not (but it was supposed to be for number one only). Wealthier people moved on to commodes, which were boxes with a seat and lid covering the chamber pot to reduce odors. Tubs also became more common at this time due to concerns about catching diseases in public baths, but the inconvenience of hauling and heating water meant you had to at least share the water, if not the tub. Many bathtubs from this period were also lined with steel to help keep them warm longer.

1720-1820: The Advent of Mirrors

No longer just for essential bodily functions, bathrooms started to become private spaces for grooming and preening in the 18th century. Instead of keeping their tub, chamber pot, and jug in the living area, people started confining these items to their own spaces. Commodes became common, and in 1775, a watchmaker named Alexander Cummings invented the S-pipe, the prelude to the modern flushing toilet. One of the most significant developments during this period was the increased affordability of mirrors, which were previously very expensive to produce.

1820-1920: Sewers, Running Water, and Toilet Paper

This is the time when bathrooms started to look like something we’d recognize today. Governments decided to get a handle on the public hygiene situation, building sewer systems and running water pipes to most urban homes. That meant the average person could have a flush toilet, a sink, and a bathtub, with water typically heated by a boiler in the basement. Rich people’s bathrooms grew more ornate than ever, with chandeliers, gilded fixtures, exposed pipes, and a nifty new invention called toilet paper (though frankly, we’d probably all be better off if the whole world embraced bidets instead).

1920-2020: The Bathroom as a Self-Care Refuge

Over the past century, bathrooms have become one of the most important rooms in our homes, typically second only to the kitchen in terms of how much money and care is put into their design. Water heaters and electricity transformed them into hallowed spaces where we can preen for hours on end with a full expectation of privacy. Nowadays, smart technology is taking luxury bathrooms up a notch by remembering our preferences for temperature and water pressure, automatically adjusting the lighting, displaying digital information on our mirrors, and even heating the toilet seat.

It’s wild to think of what bathrooms might look like in another 100 years, isn’t it?

The post From Chamber Pots to Smart Toilets: See 500 Years of Bathroom History in 90 Seconds first appeared on Dornob.

Hundreds of decorative drinking fountains – or “pyaus,” as they’re called in Hindi – were erected in the middle of markets and along tram routes by wealthy Indian philanthropists during the British colonial era. Many of these were donated to their surrounding communities as gifts and often constructed as tributes to the patron’s family members.

At the time the fountains were built, water would flow freely and continuously from the city’s underground pipes. However, Mumbai’s 20th-century population explosion taxed the available water supply so much that by the 1960s, fountain use was restricted to just a few hours a day. The inconsistency and lack of upgrades even caused some of them to dry up completely.

As indoor plumbing started to become standard for middle and upper-class residents, public reservoirs were further strained. Bottled water also gained popularity as a drinking option. Subsequently, most of the pyaus have been forgotten and fallen into disrepair.

As access to water remains a constant problem for Indian’s poorer residents, city officials and activists are currently leading an effort to restore the public fountains. Back in 2008, BMC, Mumbai’s municipal corporation, commissioned architecture firm Vaastu Vidhaan, led by architect Rahul Chemburkar, to restore two pyaus, including the Keshavji Nayak fountain, named in honor of its original sponsor from the 1870s. It’s a grand edifice to be sure, towering over the market square with its 30-foot columns and ornately carved canopy. The base is adorned with statues of sacred Hindu bulls, which point visitors up to stone pots containing the life-giving liquid (which today comes from a municipal connection installed in 2015).

“It’s like a cultural oasis,” Chemburkar told NPR in an interview, estimating that about 50 people an hour come to the fountains for a drink. And most importantly, the water is available to anyone, no matter their religion or caste.

“In wide contrast, all over the country you see a lot of discrimination over the ownership of water,” he adds, pointing out examples of minority Muslims and Dalits being physically attacked for trying to drink from public wells. He says these pyaus come with an implicit understanding, though, that they are open to all.

Greater access is needed more now than ever, with the pandemic intensifying water inequalities among Mumbai’s 18.4 million residents. A November 2020 study from the NGO Committee for the Right to Water found that the city’s poorest residents were spending more on the essential liquid than they were before COVID hit, as their normal sources (places like schools and workplaces) were locked down. Today, many of those low-income inhabitants are forced to pool their money just to pay for water from private tanker-trucks.

“Even as public service announcements were issued reminding people to wash their hands regularly with soap, at least 2 million people in Mumbai wondered how to follow such recommendations without regular, adequate, and affordable water access,” the study adds.

Even though Mumbai has installed many water ATMs at railway stations as a means of making it more affordable, they still charge a fee. That’s why one of the study’s biggest recommendations was to build more pyaus, even if they are less ornate, to provide totally free H2O.

The BMC has also identified 30 existing pyaus to be restored over the next few years as part of a sweeping public works project. “[The decorative elements] give a lot of dignity to the simple act of drinking water,” says Chemburkar. “Today we … miss aesthetics in public architecture.”

The post Mumbai’s Historical Fountains Get a Revamp, Giving Indians More Access to Free Water first appeared on Dornob.

The nearly 100-foot-long portraits were carried by the subjects themselves, including Badger Bates, a senior Baakandji elder and spokesperson on the Back River, orchardists Rachel Strachan and Alan Whyte, and Wayne Smith, a sixth-generation farmer. All have been impacted by the decline of the Darling/Baaka River caused by climate change, inadequate irrigation, and drought.

The river is a major tributary to the Murray-Darling River system, the largest on the Australian continent, and its health is directly tied to the health of the Baakandji culture, offering food, fiber, and shelter, among other precious resources. The portrait subjects are among those calling for a new river management system based on indigenous land management practices, including the sustainable irrigation of farms and orchards.

“Baaka is the name of our beautiful river, and it is who Baakandji people are, people of the river,” says Badger Bates. “Baakandji never left our land, we are still here, we love our land and it loves us. We have stories that explain its creation and how everything works, so we know how to look after it.”

Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria for the NGV Triennial, “Homily to Country” also consists of an open-air chapel inlayed with stained glass windows featuring the same portraits in the NGV garden and an accompanying film, which itself includes footage of the procession.

“Through this ambitious project, JR explores one of the most significant ecological issues facing Australia today,” says Tony Ellwood, Director of NGV, adding that “the procession in the Menindee Lakes district as part of JR’s thought-provoking ‘Homily to Country’ works in the NGV Triennial, highlighting important local voices and giving global attention to the environmental concerns of the Murray-Darling River.”

“Homily to Country” began as a continuation of JR’s “Omelia Contadina” project, which shines a light Italian farmers facing many of the same issues. JR traveled to Australia in early 2020, before the pandemic began, to meet with the orchardists who were forced to remove and burn their families’ formerly successful commercial orchards due to lack of irrigation flows.

“I started this project in Italy, very far from Australia, yet farmers have similar issues: protect their environment and live decently from their work,” JR says. “Like many people this past year who were not able to participate in important life moments, I will follow the procession remotely but will surely feel the presence of all the people gathered.”

JR’s signature black-and-white portraiture never fails to start conversations about important topics, like the homogenization of architecture, the plight of undocumented young people in the United States, and the well-being of incarcerated people. Previous projects include a massive Brooklyn mural of 1,000 New Yorkers in “Chronicles,” a thought-provoking temporary billboard along the US-Mexico border in “Giants,” a visualization of the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island in “Unframed,” and photos of local elderly people splashed across the facades of urban buildings in “The Wrinkles of the City.”

The post Monumental Portraits Call Attention to Australian River’s Decline in JR’s “Homily to Country” first appeared on Dornob.

A New Zealand native, Glogau explored global challenges all over the world as part of his studies in Architecture and Extreme Environments at the Royal Danish Academy. His travels in Chile – among some of the 110,000 families there with no access to power or purified water – inspired him to invent a self-sustaining solution.

“I identified two raw resources which [the Chilean] communities had unlimited access to: sunlight and seawater,” explains Glogau, who now works at Danish architecture firm GXN. “I wanted to achieve a design which was sustainable, passive, and created a striking feature inside the dark settlement home. In my development process, it became apparent that I could address the lack of indoor lighting and water access by creating a hybrid skylight and solar desalination device.”

Here’s how it works: salty seawater is poured into a pipe in the bowl-shaped skylight, where solar energy is harnessed to distill it into drinkable water. A tap at the base allows owners to collect the usable water from inside their homes. The skylight also brings diffused natural sunrays into houses that are often dark due to a lack of windows. When the sun goes down, the leftover brine from the ocean water is sent into copper and zinc batteries that produce an electrical charge to power an internal LED lamp for nighttime use. This green model keeps resources efficiently cycling through the whole process.

Collaborating with local NGO Techo, Glogau was able to install his device within the Chilean community of Antofagasta. Through the course of his experimentation there, he developed a prototype that could produce 440 millimeters or 1.85 cups of potable water a day. The 12 salt-powered batteries in each skylight were able to generate 9.53 volts.

Glogau is one of six finalists in the Lexus design competition, an annual contest sponsored by the luxury car brand to discover up-and-coming makers and inventions that incorporate their three fundamental principles: “Anticipate. Innovate. Captivate.”

This year’s theme of “Design for a Better Tomorrow” allowed participants to address relevant issues of the day. “In the middle of a changing climate and a global pandemic there was a predictable urgency to the problems being addressed by the designers,” said Lexus Design Award judge Greg Lynn. “Across all the proposals we saw, there was also a humanity and intimate scale.”

Other proposals that made it to the last round include things like a terracotta evaporative wind-powered cooling system for subways, mittens that use rhythm and music to mitigate stress, and a reusable packaging material that can be assembled like a puzzle with rearrangeable pieces.

The finalists will be matched with leading mentors and given $25,000 to help them improve their prototypes. The projects will then be judged and a winner declared in April 2021.

Glogau is excited for the difference this competition can help him make. He believes that innovations like his desalination skylight are essential to the earth’s future. In order to survive climate changes and resource scarcity, he says, “we need to re-imagine our living environments in a sustainable and autonomous way.”

The post This Innovative Skylight Turns Ocean Water into Drinkable H2O first appeared on Dornob.

The Warka village lies in a place with no roads and little communication with the outside world. Due to frequent flooding, the territory can be totally inaccessible during the rainy seasons. The innovative new micro-town incorporates several features to support the life and livelihood of the Pygmy culture all year round.

Two Warka Towers provide an alternative source of drinking water for residents by gathering moisture from rain, fog, and dew. “It is a passive structure, it functions only by natural phenomena such as gravity, condensation, and evaporation,” the company website explains. Built from 100-percent recyclable and biodegradable components, the towers should yield between 10 and 20 gallons of potable water each day, depending on atmospheric conditions.

“Warka tower is demonstrating that we can harvest water from the sky, so water doesn’t only come from the ground,” Vittori says. “This not a new invention but an ancient knowhow that we have lost. Looking back, several cultures have been adopting different strategies to collect water in a sustainable way from the air. Warka will also help to rediscover some of these lost traditions, inspiring a new generation of architects to incorporate these techniques in contemporary design.”

The community housing was inspired by ancestral African huts and assembled with native Cameroonian construction methods, employing only locally-sourced wood, bricks, and fibers. Even better, the new dwellings improve upon tradition by adding insulated floors, natural ventilation, and rain-proof roofs.

Before the erection of the Warka village, there were no toilets in the Mvoumagomi range and disease could easily spread through unhygienic practices. Now, compost latrines have been set up to support better sanitation and furnish sustenance for the environment. The liquid human waste is diluted for natural fertilizer, while the solid waste is mixed with soil and dried to create nutrient-rich manure for the Warka garden.

The town’s modular garden is devised to feed the Pygmy people and supply crops to be sold at local markets. It utilizes an efficient irrigation system that pulls water straight from the Warka towers.

Warka Water Inc. got its start after Vittori traveled to the rural high plateau of Ethiopia in February 2012. “I witnessed a dramatic reality: the lack of potable water,” Vittori explains. “…To survive here, women and children walk every day for miles towards shallow and unprotected ponds, where the water is often contaminated with human and animal waste, parasites, and diseases. They collect the water using dry carved gourds and carry the water back in old plastic containers, which are extremely heavy… I made it my mission to find an alternative solution and help these people. This was the genesis of the design of warka tower: an environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable solution for potable water.”

The Cameroonian Warka Village is already operational, with an anticipated completion date of 2022. Warka Water has also finished another community in Ethiopia and has plans for sites in Haiti, Togo, and Colombia.

The post Sustainable Cameroonian Village Harvests Water from the Sky first appeared on Dornob.

The facade of the SMTown Coex Artium in Seoul’s Coex K-Pop Square just became a giant projection screen for the world’s largest anamorphic illusion. Entitled “Public Media Art #1_WAVE,” the outdoor installation features enormous, strikingly realistic crashing waves that appear to be trapped within a glass container.

That “glass” is actually a curved digital billboard measuring 265 feet (80.8 meters) wide by 66 feet (20.1 meters) high. That’s about four times the size of a basketball court in Seoul, according to The Korea Herald. Incredibly crisp and sharp, the imagery is paired with sound for a greater impact. Little details like wet spots on the “ceiling” of the illusive space help give it a sense of realism.

“WAVE” is the work of d’strict, a company that specializes in “designing, making, and delivering breathtaking visual content on Digital Out of Home.” They say works like these “offer the world a new experience” in the form of high-definition outdoor advertising that can be shaped to any size screen.

The SMTown Coex Artium is part of the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in the upscale neighborhood of Gangnam, also known as home to SM Entertainment (the music label representing many big K-pop stars). The goal is to make the square into a tourist attraction for K-pop fans, ultimately using the screen to blast music videos at a scale never seen before. 10 more of these digital billboards are being installed at the Coex Millennium Plaza throughout June.

“We aim to develop it (the K-pop Square) into a Korean version of Times Square, incorporating advertisement media, culture, and arts,” says an official with the Korean International Trade Association (KITA).

This technology will be used in other ways too, of course. D’strict explains that “in addition to the K-pop content produced/distributed through the subsidiary NIK, [we] will continue to create new digital theme parks by expanding the content (IP) with various materials such as EIDtainment content for kids, Digital Heritage content such as cultural heritage/tourist sites, etc. In addition, we plan to develop a variety of user interactions through active R&D on new digital media technologies in line with the rapidly changing digital environment, and through this, we will expand the space-based digital experience design reference targeting the world’s leading brands.”

So, yes, the kind of loud, looming digital advertising you can’t escape is almost certainly coming to the original Times Square, as well as building facades near you. Does this give you the thrilling feeling that we’re living in the future, or make you long for the days when we weren’t bombarded by advertisements everywhere we went? If only it were always ocean waves.

The post Giant Digital Waves Crash Against the Facade of a Museum in Seoul first appeared on Dornob.

Zeltini describes it as a “house-boat-trike” or “tiny amphibious home/camper,” and it’s all of those things. Far more compact than any conventional camper, it’s capable of doing a lot more than just cruising down country roads on the weekends. It also contains far more than meets the eye. But best of all, it can seamlessly transition from land to water and back again, giving its users the kind of adaptability we can usually only dream of.

Designed for two people, the Z-Triton is equipped with two electric motor hubs, an electric outboard engine, and 250 watts worth of solar panels. It has three wheels: one in the front and two in the sides, all of which can fold up when the craft hits the water. When that happens, the “back end” of the bicycle camper becomes the front of the boat. When it’s time to head back home, the bike can easily carry the lightweight body of the camper/boat along the road, with a little electrical assistance, to boot. It’s capable of traveling up to 25 miles on land or 19 miles on water.

One of the not-so-great aspects of camping is the need to lug around a ton of separate gear, unpack it when you reach your destination, and then pack it back up again. If you’re camping in more than one spot, you’re repeating that process multiple times on a single trip, which gets old fast. The Z-Triton offers a sleeping pod for two people, eliminating the need for a tent, as well as an entire fold-up kitchen. Almost everything inside is modular, too, so you can remove things like the benches and tuck them away when you don’t need them.

Its blocky proportions aren’t exactly aerodynamic looking, and the overall aesthetic is reminiscent of retro Soviet design, but in a fun way. There’s even a live plant sticking out of the roof, which… sure, why not?

Is it kind of goofy? Absolutely. It sort of looks like it belongs in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It’s easy to imagine Bill Murray piloting it while wearing that little orange beanie. But unlike a lot of other oddball creations, this is a real product with a working prototype, and its creators hope to make it available for rent to the public in 2021.

Latvia-based Zeltini is known for its unusual designs. Previously, they unveiled their “Temple of Poop,” a modern outhouse made of wood that’s elevated above the landscape with a giant pane of glass offering beautiful views to enjoy while doing your business. Built on the designer’s property, it composts human waste into fertilizer for its own rooftop garden.

The post Zeltini’s Z-Triton is an Amphibious Boat, Tricycle, and Camper in One first appeared on Dornob.

The Whiteshark MixPro is a small, lightweight double-propeller device that can reach up to four miles per hour and last up to 60 minutes per charge. Clearly, this thing is ideal for checking out natural bodies of water, but you can use it in the pool, too.

Two speed options let you zoom around at either 1.2 or 1.8 meters per second, and a designated phone mount (used with the WhiteShark MixPro waterproof phone case) and universal mount for action cameras make it possible to film the entire experience. An attachable selfie stick will even widen up your shot if you want the camera facing you instead of capturing your view.

The scooter also features a waterproof LED light so you can always see where you’re going, no matter how deep you manage to dive. A detachable floater makes it easier for use by kids and people with limited upper body strength, but you can take always it off and let the propellers do all the work if you want to descend more than a couple meters below the surface.

That’s where the handiness of this device seems to really come in. Not all of us are accomplished free divers, and getting deep enough to see things like coral reefs without scuba equipment or worrying about making it back up to the surface can be intimidating. It would be pretty cool to experiment with one of these things to see just how much it could boost your underwater range.

The WhiteShark MixPro can be used up to five meters deep with the floater, or 40 meters (over 130 feet!) without it. It gradually speeds up when you press the two trigger buttons simultaneously, and the dual trigger button lock will keep you from accidentally thrusting forward when you don’t mean to. It’s resistant to salt corrosion, its lithium-ion batteries fully recharge in just two hours, and the whole thing is small enough to chuck into a suitcase for those vacations we’re all hoping to take just as soon as it’s safe to travel again.

The MixPro’s official crowdfunding page reads: “Bring your WhiteShark MixPro on all your adventures! WhiteShark MixPro’s portable lithium battery is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to take on board all flights. WhiteShark MixPro is the smallest double propeller underwater scooter on the market. Lightweight yet powerful, WhiteShark MixPro only weighs 3.55 kg (7.82 lbs). Easily pack it in your backpack and take your portable companion on all your adventures.”

Made by Sublue, a company known for its research and development of underwater robots, the WhiteShark MixPro just successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, so it’ll probably be available to the public later this year. It comes in white or black with gold trim. The “beginner pack” comes with one 122Wh battery included at an MSRP of $699, or you can get various combo packages that come with extra batteries, selfie extension sticks, waterproof backpacks, and other add-ons for anywhere between $849 and $1,199.

The post This Underwater Scooter Turbo-Charges Your Swimming Speed first appeared on Dornob.

German photographer Tobias Friedrich calls attention to vulnerable underwater species through gorgeous images of underwater creatures, shipwrecks, and reefs. But some of his most recent images might be the most striking of all: those depicting icebergs from an angle we rarely see.

Friedrich recently took a trip to Greenland to dive beneath the surface, capturing what’s usually not visible beyond “the tip of the iceberg.” With mottled, textured surfaces that sometimes extend many meters into the deep, the icebergs almost seem alive, mimicking the presence of whales. He hopes these images will help raise awareness about the effects of global warming by encouraging us to reflect on the natural formations and what their loss could mean for our planet.

The photographer can be seen in many of the images, gazing up at the underwater portions of the icebergs in his scuba diving gear. Beside them, he looks as small as a single solitary fish. Some of the shots depict underwater landscapes that are almost alien in nature, while others place creatures like jellyfish in the foreground to remind us of their earthly context.

Some of the coolest shots are taken from right at the surface, so half the photo is underwater and half is above. In other cases, Friedrich even had to drill a hole in the ice in order to get beneath the massive icebergs.

He calls this collection “SHADES OF WATER — ICE: FREEDIVING WITH ICEBERGS UNDER THE ICE.”

A description on the photographer’s official website notes that “in his childhood Tobias Friedrich loved to watch the adventures of the Calypso with Jacques-Yves Cousteau as its captain and the beauty of the world that is below the ocean’s surface. It’s still an overwhelming feeling for him when he has the chance to dive. He loves the elegance and calmness of the world under water standing in contrast to the hectic atmosphere above.”

“Tobias Friedrich lives in Germany and started taking pictures with a DSLR underwater in the year 2007. Since then, his images have been published in prestigious scuba diving magazines and newspapers around the world. Several underwater photographic competitions have honored his work, resulting in over 50 awards with nearly 30 1st places.”

“Lately he has been named ‘Underwater Photographer of the Year 2018’ in the prestigious UPY London competition. All waters, from zero to 30° Celsius, are attractive for him, at least there is something to photograph. He [uses] SEACAM equipment for his Canon EOS 1DX Mark II and 5D Mark II DSLR. He is leading expeditions and workshops around the world, where everybody can join.”

You can keep up with Friedrich’s work on Instagram or at his website, Below-Surface.com, where books of his photography are available for purchase. Prints can be found on RedBubble.

The post Stunning Photo Series Lets Us Gaze Up at Greenland’s Icebergs from Beneath first appeared on Dornob.

The construction and design centered around making the entire building healthy for people, beautiful, functional, and energy efficient. Any one of its green systems stands as an example of this focus — not least of which being the fact that the Kendeda Building is net positive for energy, water, and construction waste, meaning that it gives back more in these areas than it takes.

The Living Building Challenge provided a framework of requirements to meet certification standards. As explained on its official website, the challenge “is a green building certification program and sustainable design framework that visualizes the ideal for the built environment. It uses the metaphor of a flower because the ideal built environment should function as cleanly and efficiently as a flower.” This standard is gauged on several criteria, including material makeup and energy use, along with evaluation from a third-party auditor.

Like most eco-centric designs, the Kendeda Building makes ample use of solar panels to power all the systems contained within its 47,000-square-foot footprint. Interestingly enough, these solar panels also function as water collection devices. The primary heating and cooling systems then push that water through the floors to maintain a comfortable surface temperature. For additional temperature control, 62 ceiling fans inside the building help students and faculty keep the humid Georgia climate at bay.

In addition to sustainability, the Kendeda Building’s design also promotes accessibility with a centrally-located ramp for wheelchair users. Embracing diversity was an important aspect in both its planning and construction phases, with the goal of creating a space that not only teaches students about sustainability, but also educates them on other topics like math and science. Partnering with a local non-profit called Georgia Works, six people from the local community seen as high risk for chronic homelessness were also trained in construction while helping to build the building’s ceiling.

Aesthetically, the building is decidedly modern, making heavy use of wood and metal features to create a clean, minimalistic aesthetic for its two 64-person classrooms, two 24-person class labs, two 16-person class labs, 16-person conference room, makerspace, 176-person auditorium, rooftop apiary and pollinator garden, office space for affiliated programs, and coffee cart.

According to the Georgia Tech website, the project cost “approximately $397 per square foot based on total programmed space. Cost of conditioned space is expected to be $503 per square feet.” With a total cost of $30 million received from the private Kendeda Fund, the Kendeda Building stands as an example of what sustainable design should look like in 2020, and it also offers endless potential for the future. This achievement will only be reaffirmed when the building becomes the first Living Building Challenge-certified facility of its size and function in the Southeast United States, which it expects to earn following one complete year of functional occupancy.

The post Classes Officially Start at Georgia Tech’s Ultra-Green Kendeda Building first appeared on Dornob.

The trend for healthy living has been on the rise for decades now, particularly gaining momentum by leaps and bounds in the 21^st century. One of the last places to be untouched by it is the home, but the new DARWIN Wellness System is poised to change that by making it easier than ever to monitor the air, lighting, and water quality in it.

The Company

Back in 2012, Delos launched its real estate company in New York. What made them unique was their “wellness real estate” focus. Their mission was clear: to improve the quality of home living by monitoring and controlling the elements that keep people healthy: air, water, and lighting.

The DARWIN system (aka DARWIN Home Wellness Intelligence) was formally launched in Sydney, Australia in the fall of 2019. The system includes lighting that imitates natural light patterns in homes along with sensors and filters that identify and eliminate impurities in the air and water.

How It Works

The home environment is monitored by DARWIN on a tablet similar to an iPad. The Wi-Fi-dependent system displays several metrics gathered through air quality sensors and filters that perceive and eradicate impurities like pollution and smoke from the home. On top of that, the system’s water purifiers eliminate chlorine, heavy metals, and other negative elements from the home’s tap water.

Light is also a major component in health maintenance, with natural light patterns playing a big part in overall human wellness. DARWIN’s lighting component is designed to replicate natural light patterns, with blackout shades that are programmed by residents to bathe the home in natural light at a specific time each morning and slowly dim each evening.

Paul Scialla, CEO of Delos, explains that the lighting system was designed to offset the negative effects of humans spending too much time inside. “We’re indoors for most of our lives,” he says. “And while we may not be able to change that, DARWIN gives you the ability to change your environment.”

Spreading the Word

Delos chose Australia to debut the DARWIN System for practical reasons. Beth McGroarty, the Research Director for the Global Wellness Institute, says: “Australia is a trailblazer in wellness real estate and started taking it seriously almost two decades ago, before it was a worldwide trend.” Delos teamed up with Simonds and Lateral Estate, two Australian real estate developers, for the project. Today, DARWIN-enhanced properties are on the market in the outer reaches of both Sydney and Melbourne.

According to Global Wellness Institute statistics, wellness real estate is a $134 billion market worldwide and is estimated to increase to almost $200 billion by 2022. Australia’s market share is valued at $9.5 billion, making it the third largest on Earth behind the United States and China.

Delos’ projects in Australia also include lower-cost and luxury properties. They joined forces with Simonds, a major homebuilder, on lower-priced residences in the state of Victoria and several suburbs in the Melbourne region. Lateral Estate is also currently offering DARWIN-enhanced luxury apartments in a Sydney suburb for prices ranging from $550,000 to $1.4 million.

The post Futuristic DARWIN Wellness System Creates Healthier Homes first appeared on Dornob.