Designer Shaakira Jassat has created a rain-catcher that is slim enough to fit on the outside of buildings in dense urban environments.
The Aquatecture panel is designed to collect rainwater as it trickles over the openings in the structure before pumping it into a building's grey-water system.
Jassat, who is the founder of Studio Sway, was inspired to create the panel after observing drought conditions in her native country of South Africa. She said that people in cities like Cape Town and Pretoria had lived in fear of Day Zero ? the day the taps would be shut off.
Photo by Ronald Smits
The designer, who is now based in the Netherlands, noted that while water-harvesting equipment such as rainwater tanks were a familiar presence in rural environments, that is generally not the case in cities, where space is at a premium. Her design would allow urban residents to sustain their own needs by channelling rainwater into the building's grey-water system, where it can be recycled along with the waste water from sinks, washing machines and other appliances.
"The main goal was to create a water harvester that would fit in dense urban spheres through its compactness, visual identity and ability to integrate into architecture," Jassat told Dezeen.
Photo by Angeline Swinkels
While the primary purpose of the panels is to catch rainwater, Jassat says that, if hooked up to other equipment, they could potentially also pull water from the atmosphere via condensation.
The panels ar...