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A Bamboo Tower That Produces Water From Air

By Liz Stinson
01.09.15 |
6:30 am |
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The WarkaWater tower produces water by harvesting rain, fog and dew from the air.

WarkaWater

1/5
The WarkaWater tower produces water by harvesting rain, fog and dew from the air.
WarkaWater

It's now raising money on Kickstarter to fund field testing in Ethiopia.

WarkaWater

1/5
It's now raising money on Kickstarter to fund field testing in Ethiopia.
WarkaWater

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The tower uses three system to capture each of the weather phenomena. A polyester mesh net fathers moisture from fog, rain collects directly into a holding tank and dew is directly
1/5
The tower uses three system to capture each of the weather phenomena. A polyester mesh net fathers moisture from fog, rain collects directly into a holding tank and dew is directly
WarkaWater

A prototype of the fog-harvesting netting.

WarkaWater

1/5
A prototype of the fog-harvesting netting.
WarkaWater

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A Warka tree.

A Bamboo Tower That Produces Water From Air | WIRED

WarkaWater

1/5
A Warka tree.
WarkaWater
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The WarkaWater tower produces water by harvesting rain, fog and dew from the air.

WarkaWater

A Bamboo Tower That Produces Water From Air

ADVERTISEMENT

The WarkaWater tower is an unlikely structure to find jutting from the Ethiopian landscape. At 30 feet tall and 13 feet wide, its not half as big as its namesake tree (which
can loom 75 feet tall), but its striking nonetheless. The spindly tower, of latticed bamboo lined with orange polyester mesh, isnt artthough it does kind of look like it.
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Rather, the structure is designed to wring water out of the air, providing a sustainable source of H2O for developing countries.
Created by Arturo Vittori and his team at Architecture and Vision, the towers harvest water from rain, fog and dew. This isnt a new ideapeople have been doing this
for as long as theyve needed water, often with air wells. Often built as high-rising stone structures, air wells gather moisture from the air and funnel it into a basin for
collection. The WarkaWater functions in much the same way, using mesh netting to capture moisture and direct it into hygienic holding tank accessed via a spout.
We wrote about the towers last year when Vittori unveiled a full-size prototype. The company has a newer version of the WarkaWater and a Kickstarter campaign to fund
field testing in Ethiopia later this year. Based on tests performed in its Italian lab, the company claims the latest iteration can harvest 13 to 26.4 gallons of water daily.
Thats less than most people flush away each day, but a significant quantity in a country where some 60 million people lack sufficient potable water.

How the system works. Illustration: WarkaWater

The new prototype has some key upgrades: The exterior is of bamboo rather than juncus, the top of the tower has reflective pieces to deter birds, and the structure is larger
(13 feet wide, up from 7). This doubled the surface area of its water-resistant polyester mesh nettingthe orange material you seeso more water is collected as fog
permeates the fine mesh. MIT has been researching a similar fog harvesting technique that draws inspiration from the Namib beetle. The process of collecting rain is
straightforward, but capturing dew is slightly more complicated. Dew forms when the surface area temperature drops relative to the surrounding air. This happens most
often in the time between nightfall and sunrise. Vittori is researching materials for the funnel section of the WarkaWater (between mesh netting and the tank) that will lose
heat as quickly as possible in order to optimize the small window of dew-production.
The WarkaWater will cost around $1,000 to produce and requires no electricity. Vittori says it takes less than an hour to assemble the five modules into a finished tower,
making it easily packed and moved as necessary. The practical goal is for the WarkaWater to become an efficient round-the-clock water production machine. But
populating the landscape with alien towers is about more than just functionality, its about architecture. You can tell Vittori wanted to design something iconic, but beyond
that is the towers potential to the social nexus of a village. With fabric canopies that stretch out like a peplum skirt, the towers could be a place where people gather to
socialize and seek shelter from the sun, just as they would beneath a leafy Warka tree.
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AngryDad

an hour ago

They've had these on Arrakis for years.

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southtpa

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an hour ago

how does it hold up in high wind? it looks weak.

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NuprinBoy

2 hours ago

Just off camera are the bamboo load-lifters. I've heard they're very similar to these bamboo vaporators in most respects.
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