SHAAKIRA JASSAT
DESIGNER’S NOTE: I love the material WATER (H2O)
Water is a beautiful material, it is reflective and calming. It has an impeccable strength. Not strength in the many ways we have come to know what strength means - water has its own type of strength, it can be fierce. Somehow this material has surfaced within my projects over the last 4 years and as I go along with it, I am more astonished. Sometimes I may work directly with water, getting things wet during experimentation phases of projects whereas at other times I find myself floating around researching the unsuspecting and interesting ecosystems surrounding water. Design H2O is a book diving into my personal journey with water as a resource material, inspiration and guide. It highlights my most recent work, Aquatecture - an architectural panel designed to harvest water. My South African upbringing and background in architecture all play a role in informing this project.
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Cape Town, a coastal city in South Africa suffered a major drought which peaked at the middle of 2017 and 2018. This was when my interest in water as a material steered more in the direction of using design to respond to the call of water’s fast disappearance. Since then I have been working hard on realising the projects, some with the hope of initiating conversations around this relevant topic, whilst others slowly develop into impactful design which aids and sustains water on the earth, our basic human need for survival. The research outlined in this book ranges from taking nature as my teacher all the way to conducting personal research methods. I have looked at the material through various lenses. This is just the beginning of my personal water cycle, I look forward to what the future holds! I hope you enjoy paging through the first revelations of my ongoing journey! Stay hydrated Shaakira
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CONTENTS
Cape Town
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What is this project reacting to?
Nature as Inspiration
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What can we learn from the wisdom of mother nature?
Research Methodology
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What does this project mean on a personal level?
Urban Water
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What is the current situation like?
Aquatecture How can a designer respond to earth’s plea?
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CAPE TOWN
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SOUTH AFRICA 11
Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine. - Slovakian Proverb
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01 CAPE TOWN When the drought in Cape Town, South Africa, was worsening in late 2017, one of the country’s leading insurance companies, Sanlam, wanted to help get the word out that people needed to save water. Sanlam’s idea was to make a billboard telling people to cut down on water use. But that seemed boring to copywriter Susan van Rooyen and art director Moe Kekana. So van Rooyen and Kekana started brainstorming. Cape Town’s government was asking people to save water by taking showers that lasted two minutes or less. Inspiration struck soon enough.”What do people do in the shower?” Says 30-year-old van Rooyen. “They sing.”She and Kekana, 28, came up with something of a musical challenge: the 2-Minute Shower Songs campaign. The team asked South Africa’s biggest pop stars to record new, shortened versions of their most famous songs.”I remember sending an email where somebody said, ‘How many do you want?’ And I said, ‘I could live with four or five, but 10 would be the dream,’” Kekana says. “And we got 10.”
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WATER CRISIS Between the years 2015 and 2018, water levels in Cape Town’s dams were fast declining. The lack of rain and a host of other governmental issues had led the city to face this monumental disaster which has left an indelible mark on all the people it has affected. To me, the water crisis was clear before I even got out of Cape Town International Airport. The bathroom faucets were dry, with liquid hand soap replaced by hand sanitizer. After a historic three-year drought, Cape Town faced the prospect of “Day Zero” — the moment when the water supply runs so low that to supply water to the city would be an impossible reality. All the city’s faucets would be just like those at the airport - completely dry. To avert the collapse of municipal plumbing, the city imposed a limit of 50 liters of water per person per day, with sharp financial penalties for overuse. Day Zero was initially expected in April 2017, but pushed back to June, July, and then August and till today has been averted due to the water saving efforts of everyone who was affected in Cape Town. The Cape Town region experiences a Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and winter rainfall.
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“DAY ZERO” The Western Cape Water Supply System relies almost entirely on rainfall, which is captured and stored in six major dams situated in mountainous areas. The dams are recharged by rain falling in the catchment areas, largely during the cooler winter months of May to August, and dam levels decline during the dry summer months of November to April during which urban water use increases and irrigation takes place in the agricultural areas. Residential and agricultural water usage declined significantly under the new restrictions. This enabled the City to move “Day Zero” back in stages and on 28 June 2018 postponed “Day Zero” indefinitely. Good winter rains in 2018 resulted in dam levels rising, but the national Department of Water and Sanitation announced that bulk water restrictions would remain in place until levels reached 85 per cent. In September, with dam levels close to 70 percent towards the end of the rainy season, the city reduced consumer water restrictions from level 6B to level 5. Dam levels peaked at 76 per cent. In November, restrictions were reduced to Level 3, or 105 liters per person per day. Under Level 3 restrictions, municipal water may be used to water gardens at certain times, using a watering can or bucket but not a hose, to wash cars using a bucket, and to top up swimming pools as long as the pool is fitted with a cover to prevent evaporation.
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The immediate cause of the water crisis was the extreme drought from 2015-2017 that exceeded the planning norms of the Department of Water and Sanitation. Research on long-term weather data done by the Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town determined that the low rainfall between the years 2015 and 2017 was a very rare and extreme event. Decreasing rainfall trends are linked to broader changes in the atmospheric and oceanic circulation, including the poleward shift of the Southern Hemisphere moisture corridor between 2015-17, displacement of the jet-stream and an expansion of the semi-permanent South Atlantic high pressure system. 2017 was the driest year since 1933, and possibly earlier, since comparable data before 1933 was not available. It also found that a drought of this severity would statistically occur approximately once every 300 years. The City of Cape Town’s population has grown from 2.4 million residents in 1995 to an estimated 4.1 million by 2015, representing a 71 percent population increase in 20 years, whereas dam water storage only increased by 17 percent in the same period. The impact of population increases on water demand is also often underestimated, as forecasting fails to take full account of the individual’s indirect uses of water through food and consumer goods production.
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In 2007, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry predicted that the growing demand on the Western Cape Water Supply System would exceed supply if water conservation and demand management measures were not implemented by the City and other municipalities. This increase in long-run demand is exacerbated by strains on long-run supply of water, including invasive plant species and climate change. The spread of water-thirsty alien plants in crucial catchment areas have reduced water supply to the Theewaterskloof Dam by an estimated 30 million metric cube per annum. There has been a one degree Celsius increase in temperature over the past century and models predict that the average temperature in Cape Town will increase by another 0.25 degrees Celsius in the next ten years, which may increase the likelihood and severity of drought. Responsibility for the water supply is shared by local, provincial and national government. The National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) prescribes that the national government is the “public trustee” of the nation’s water resources to ensure that water is “protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner, for the benefit of all persons”. This resulted in tension between the oppositionled local and provincial government (Democratic Alliance, DA) on the one hand, and the majority party-led national government on the other (African National Congress, ANC), with the parties blaming each other for the water crisis. The DA is criticized
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for a lack of forward thinking on the development of new water sources and infrastructures, while the ANC is accused of withholding funding to sabotage and embarrass the DA-led administration. In midOctober 2017, the City was criticised by some of the water desalination companies for the slow pace of procurement, high level of bureaucracy, lack of urgency, and the inadequate scale of the proposed water supply projects. Doomsday predictions of Day Zero in Cape Town has led many individuals and businesses to seek alternative water supplies from the Western Cape Water Supply System. Many desperate locals, armed with plastic containers, can also be seen collecting water from mountain streams and natural springs around the city. This has led to long lines and even fights between citizens, and the City has also stepped up security at popular locations. More innovative solutions include the installation of water storage tanks that will collect rainwater, and the drilling of private boreholes. Since the marginal cost of using water from the water storage tanks or private boreholes is close to zero, we can hence expect households and businesses with such installed options to reduce their demand for municipal water. They can also meet their most price inelastic needs with these alternative supplies of water,
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and more price elastic needs will make up a larger percentage of total municipal water demand. This has potentially deleterious long-run consequences for water security and the municipal water supply system: first, it hampers the ability of the city to use water pricing and tariff policy to regulate use of the commons and two, given the importance of cross-subsidization of low-volume users by highvolume users in a progressive tiered-water tariff system, it raises financial sustainability concerns for a water system that is already buckling under its fiscal weight. While water regulations do not easily allow citizen and local businesses to go off the municipality’s water supply system, further changes in local by-laws may need to be implemented to enable well-off households and the private sector to contribute to augmenting water service delivery.
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MAJOR CITIES ON THE RISK OF RUNNING OUT OF WATER INCLUDE:
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SAO PAULO MOSCOW ISTANBUL BANGALORE BEIJING MEXICO CITY LONDON CAIRO JAKARTA TOKYO
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02 Nature as Inspiration
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“When in Cape Town I was personally confronted by so many situations where the tap was dry. In shopping malls and the airport, one was unable to flush the toilet or wash your hands. The city’s entire relationship with water and the tap altered during this time.“
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After returning from Cape Town, I began thinking about the drought situation in a more holistic context. I looked at how the city had managed to get into the situation it was in and the factors which led up to the imminent day zero. More importantly I assessed my very own relationship with water daily. My findings brought me to the fact that I felt too reliant on the convenience of being able to open the tap. I believe that this moment of weakness is the point that gives us as humans a rise and willingness to seek alternatives to the way we are used to living.
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I began researching more about water and nature and found that there are specific organisms in nature which are able to harvest, filter or store their own water. Some organisms live in harsh climates and their biology has been adapted to survive under these relatively dry conditions where sources of water are not so apparent.
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Darkling beetles (family Tenebrionidae) of the Namib Desert, located on the southwest coast of Africa, live in one of the driest habitats in the world. But some species of Darkling beetle can get the water they need from dew and ocean fog, using their very own body surfaces. Several researchers are studying the beetles, as well as synthetic surfaces inspired by the beetle’s body, to uncover the roles that structure, chemistry, and
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NAMIB DESERT BEETLE
behavior play in capturing water from the air. Micro-sized grooves or bumps on the beetle’s hardened forewings can help condense and direct water toward the beetle’s awaiting mouth, while a combination of hydrophilic (water attracting) and hydrophobic (water repelling) areas on these structures may increase fog- and dew-harvesting efficiency. For certain species of Darkling beetle, the act of facing into the foggy wind and sticking its rear end up in the air (known as fog-basking behavior) is thought to be just as important as body surface structure for successfully harvesting water from the air.
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THORNY DEVIL LIZARD
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Thorny Devil Lizard
Thorny devil lizards are part of class Reptilia and mainly live throughout the arid parts of Australia. Their scientific name, Moloch horridus, is derived from the Latin word meaning rough/bristly (horridus). These lizards get their name from the conical spikes across their whole body, and they can camouflage themselves in their environments. Thorny devils’ skin collects water from its environment and channels the liquid to its mouth to drink. In extreme circumstances, they bury themselves in the sand to get moisture from it.
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BROMELIAD PLANT SPECIES Bromeliads have developed an adaptation known as the tank habit, accumulating water and nutrients between their tightly bound leaves in the absence of a well developed root system. The aquatic habitat created as a result is host to a diverse array of invertebrates, especially aquatic insect larvae. These bromeliad invertebrates benefit their hosts by increasing nitrogen uptake into the plant. Bromeliads are able to live in a vast array of environmental conditions due to their many adaptations. Trichomes, in the form of scales or hairs, allow bromeliads to capture water in cloud forests and help to reflect sunlight in desert environments. Bromeliads also use crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis to create sugars. This adaptation allows bromeliads in hot or dry climates to open their stomachs at night rather than during the day, which reduces water loss.
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TILLANDSIA PLANT SPECIES Tillandsia is a genus of around 650 species of evergreen, perennial flowering plants in the family Bromeliaceae, native to the forests, mountains and deserts of northern Mexico and south-eastern United States, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to mid Argentina. They are also commonly known as airplants because of their natural propensity to cling wherever conditions permit: telephone wires, tree branches, bark sor on bare rocks.. Most Tillandsia species are epiphytes – which translates to ‘upon a plant’. Species of Tillandsia photosynthesize through a process called CAM cycle, where they close their stomata during the day to prevent water loss and open them at night to fix carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This allows them to preserve water.
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Their leaves, more or less silvery in color, are covered with specialized cells (trichomes) capable of rapidly absorbing water that gathers on them. They do not have a functional root system and instead absorb water in small amounts through these trichomes. As soon as they have been soaked with water, the green assimilation tissue below the suction scales becomes visible, the plant is therefore “greened�. Now the plant can absorb more light. When the sun dries the plants, they turn white. Thanks to this special survival trick, plants without roots can absorb fog droplets as well as rainwater and thus cover their water needs. Species of Tillandsia also absorb their nutrients from debris and dust in the air. Any root system found on Tillandsia has grown to act as a fragile stabilizing scaffold to grip the surface they grow on. 41
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CACTI Areoles are structures unique to cacti. Although variable, they typically appear as woolly or hairy areas on the stems from which spines emerge. Flowers are also produced from areoles. Areoles often have multicellular hairs (trichomes) that give the areole a hairy or woolly appearance, sometimes of a distinct color such as yellow or brown. All cacti have some adaptations to promote efficient water use. The absence of visible leaves is one of the most striking features of most cacti. A key issue in retaining water is the ratio of surface area to volume. Water loss is proportional to surface area, whereas the amount of water present is proportional to volume. Structures with a high surface area-to-volume ratio, such as thin leaves, necessarily lose water at a higher rate than structures with a low area-to-volume ratio, such as thickened stems. Spines, which are modified leaves, provide protection from herbivores and camouflage in some species, and assist in water conservation in several ways. They trap air near the surface of the cactus, creating a moisture layer that reduces evaporation and transpiration. They can provide some shade, which lowers the temperature of the surface of the cactus, also reducing water loss. When sufficiently moist air is present, such as during fog or early morning mist, spines can condense moisture, which then drips onto the ground and is absorbed by the roots.
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SCHEMATIC ILLUSTRATION OF CAM Chloroplast
vacuole
CO2 malic acid
malic acid
H2O vapour
air space
stoma closed
stem surface
Night: stomata open; CO2 enters and is stored as malic acid; water vapor is able to escape. Photosynthesis requires plants to take in carbon dioxide gas (CO2). The need for a continuous supply of CO2 during photosynthesis means the stomata must be open, so water vapor is continuously being lost. Plants using the C3 mechanism lose as much as 97% of the water taken up through their roots in this way.
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Chloroplast
vacuole
malic acid
CO2 CO2
H2O vapour
stem surface
air space stoma open
Day: stomata close; malic acid is converted back to CO2 and used to make carbohydrate; water vapor is confined. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a mechanism adopted by cacti and other succulents to avoid the problems of the C3 mechanism. In full CAM, the stomata open only at night, when temperatures and water loss are lowest. CO2 enters the plant and is captured in the form of organic acids stored inside cells (in vacuoles). The stomata remain closed throughout the day, and photosynthesis uses only this stored CO2. CAM uses water much more efficiently at the price of limiting the amount of carbon fixed from the atmosphere and thus available for growth.
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Besides natural organisms, it proved useful to study new resources for water available around us. Lately the advancements in hydrogen transport technologies has reached notable progress and the by product of hydrogen trains, for example, happens to be water. We also know that we have a whole world of unseen water vapour surrounding us - can these forms of water provide us with spaces from which we can harvest water?
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Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. - W. H. Auden
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03 Research Methodology Coming from an academic background, I am quite used to doing research which includes going through books or online material. After being captivated by a theme, I usually begin by browsing books and papers on the topic. During my study at the Design Academy Eindhoven, I was forced to push the boundaries of what research means to and for me personally as well as generally. With the current water projects, I embodied the research on a very personal level and became a water harvester. I tried to leave all preconceptions behind me and approach the topic by just experiencing what was around me in my immediate setting. This led me to some surprising discoveries.
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CAN I COLLECT THE WATER WHICH TRANSPIRED DIRECTLY FROM LEAVES?
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Actions •
Place plastic bags around the leaves of several trees, make sure to add a weight to the bag and also that the opening of the bag is tightly sealed.
Observation/remarks • • • • •
Works quite well with plants with larger leaves, exposed to the sun. Leaves in the shade transpired no water. Very small leaves transpired much less water than bigger leaves. Water is crystal clear. Does this affect the plant in anyway and can it be designed to be plant friendly?
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AM I ABLE TO HARVEST ICE ON FROSTY WINTER MORNINGS?
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Actions • •
Find places where water has frozen into ice. Depending on the area- take the necessary tools like an ice pick, hammer, lifter, container, and gloves to protect your hands.
Observation/remarks • •
Ice is water in a more definite phase making it easier to capture. How can we clean the melted ice after harvest?
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CAN ARCHITECTURE SUPPORT CONDENSATION HARVESTING?
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Actions •
Placing random mesh fabric outside to see if fog will adhere to mesh.
Observations/remarks •
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Can I tinker with existing architecture in order turn surfaces designed to make water and condensation ‘run-off’ the building into personal harvesting stations for water condensation or even small amounts of rain? It becomes very important to keep the exterior surfaces clean so the water harvest can be clean.
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HOW CAN I HARVEST THE MORNING DEW OFF THE GRASS?
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Actions • Walk on wet morning grass with an absorptive sock. • Have a container with a wide mouth to squeeze the dew from the sock into.
Observations/remarks • Water collected picks up dirt and soil together with it. • Can the landscape be designed to overcome the dirt part? Grass patches designed for water harvesting in the city.
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04 Urban Water Throughout history, people have devised systems to make getting and using water more convenient. Living in semi-arid regions, ancient Persians in the 1st millennium BC used qanat system to gain access to water in the mountains. Early Rome had indoor plumbing, meaning a system of aqueducts and pipes that terminated in homes and at public wells and fountains for people to use. Until the Enlightenment era, little progress was made in water supply and sanitation and the engineering skills of the Romans were largely neglected throughout Europe. It was in the 18th century that a rapidly growing population fueled a boom in the establishment of private water supply networks in London. The Chelsea Waterworks Company was established in 1723 “for the better supplying the City and Liberties of Westminster and parts adjacent with water.� Other waterworks were established in London, including at West Ham in 1743, at Lea Bridge before 1767, Lambeth Waterworks Company in 1785, West Middlesex Waterworks Company in 1806 and Grand Junction Waterworks Company in 1811.
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Chelsea Waterworks, 1752. Two Newcomen beam engines pumped Thames water from a canal to reservoirs at Green Park and Hyde Park. In ancient Peru, the Nazca people employed a system of interconnected wells and an underground watercourse known as puquios. In Spain and Spanish America, a community operated watercourse known as an acequia, combined with a simple sand filtration system, provided potable water. Beginning in the Roman era a water wheel device known as a noria supplied water to aqueducts and other water distribution systems in major cities in Europe and the Middle East. London water supply infrastructure developed over many centuries from early medieval conduits, through major 19th-century treatment works built in response to cholera threats, to modern, largescale reservoirs. Water towers appeared around the late 19th century; as building height rose, and steam, electric and diesel-powered water pumps became available. As skyscrapers appeared, they needed rooftop water towers. The technique of purification of drinking water by use of compressed liquefied chlorine gas was developed in 1910 by U.S. Army Major Carl Rogers
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Darnall, professor of chemistry at the Army Medical School. Shortly thereafter, Major William J. L. Lyster of the Army Medical Department used a solution of calcium hypochlorite in a linen bag to treat water. For many decades, Lyster’s method remained the standard for U.S. ground forces in the field and in camps, implemented in the form of the familiar Lyster Bag (also spelled Lister Bag). Darnall’s work became the basis for present day systems of municipal water purification. Desalination appeared during the late 20th century, and is still limited to a few areas. During the beginning of the 21st Century, especially in areas of urban and suburban population centers, traditional centralized infrastructure have not been able to supply sufficient quantities of water to keep up with growing demand. Decentralization of water infrastructure has grown extensively as a viable solution to meet water needs. These include desalination, rainwater harvesting and stormwater harvesting.
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Tap water Running water, city water, town water, municipal water, sink water is water supplied to a tap (valve). Its uses include drinking, washing, cooking, and the flushing of toilets. Indoor tap water is distributed through “indoor plumbing,’’ which has existed since antiquity but was available to very few people until the second half of the 19th century when it began to spread in popularity in what are now developed countries. Tap water became common in many regions during the 20th century, and is now lacking mainly among people in poverty, especially in developing countries.
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Rain Management Rainwater, or snow melt, either soaks into the ground to become groundwater, evaporates, or flows over the surface of the land. The water that flows over the ground is called stormwater or runoff. Areas with buildings, roads, parking lots, or other hard surfaces tend to have more stormwater runoff than undeveloped areas. Because excess stormwater can increase the potential for flooding and property damage, it is collected into a drainage system. Storm sewer systems collect stormwater runoff and carry it away from roads and buildings to a discharge point, often into a stream or river. Pollution, such as oil from cars, road salt, eroded soil, and trash picked up by the stormwater is then deposited into our waterways affecting aquatic life and increasing the risk of flooding. Many older communities have combined sewer systems, which carry sewage and stormwater runoff in the same pipes. When it rains, the extra stormwater causes the combined sewers to fill to capacity and some of the stormwater and raw sewage mixture directly overflows into our rivers. These events are called combined sewer overflows (CSOs). They pollute our waters and can be hazardous to human health and safety.
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Everywhere water is a thing of beauty, gleaming in the dewdrops; singing in the summer rain; shining in the ice-gems till the leaves all seem to turn to living jewels; spreading a golden veil over the setting sun; or a white gauze around the midnight moon. - John Ballantine Gough
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04 Aquatecture The goal of this chapter is to provide a guideline of the findings undertaken during this ongoing research project. It contains technical resolutions which combine already existing structural platforms available. It gives the reader a basic outline of how the Aqua harvesting panel functions as a circular system.
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What if the built environment could provide sustainable alternatives to the way our cities are managed? Can architecture respond to climatic conditions and at the same time develop a sense of agency between communities and individuals. Traditional architectural standards are mainly designed to keep water flow out and away from a building.
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Aquatecture is a research project which aims to initiate ways of harvesting water through architectural elements. It consists of a modular panel designed to harvest rain water. When integrated with Peltier technology, it has the ability to harvest moisture from the air. Instead of sliding off the surface, the panel permits water to be collected through a punctured, geometric surface.
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Pattern Research
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The preceding patterns have been created from an intuitive response of how the water could potentially flow within a punctured surface at first. Thereafter, they were tested by creating them and using water to test their efficiency.
Once the first tests were made, the patterns were optimised. The surface area as well as opening ratio was worked out according to how rain could potentially flow against the surfaces.
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Flat surfaces directly below each other create long flat and unopened surfaces where water can easily slide off and away from the panel in large amounts. This should be avoided.
The angle of the opening also plays a role in the efficiency of the harvesting potential. The first tests were made with patterns that opened on an angle. It appeared that openings in vertical orientation worked better.
Round, funnel type shapes work more efficiently than sharp, pointed shapes
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The Vapour Panel The vapour panel integrates thermo-electric Peltier technology intended to condense excess moisture within the surrounding environment. It draws in humid air with the help of fans which help to regulate an air flow and cools it to below dew point as it touches the copper plate, condensing the moisture to water droplets which fall into the water storage tank. The dry air is heated as it passes the heatsink fins and pushed up and out of the system. The panel itself is water proof, except for the part which needs to plug into a power source. Ideally this panel is to be functional together with solar panelling for it to be both functional and sustainable.
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AIR OPENING
COPPER PLATE PELTIER ELEMENT HEATING FINS
POWER SOURCE
TOP VIEW
WATER TANK
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Rain Panel
SLOT OPENING BETWEEEN TILES FOR WATER MOVEMENT
OPENINGS FIXING OPENING
BACK PANEL FIXING DETAIL
FRONT VIEW
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The rain panel makes use of a punctured surface which allows rain water to enter into the harvesting system. Instead of sliding off the surface of the panel, water is friendly welcomed within. This allows for ease off the wastewater treatment systems during heavy rainfall but also stores water for the dryer periods. By combining water harvesting with visually appealing elements within the urban environment, this panel intends to make water conservation both visible and engaging.
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SOLAR PANEL
SOLAR PANEL
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WATER IS THE DRIVING FORCE OF ALL NATURE – Leonardo Da Vinci
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Credits: Graphic Design and Infographic • Alexandra Hsu Technical Illustrations • Satomi Minoshima Pattern Research • Aya Kawasaki Panel Production • Levent Kara