W-hole, every last drop
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
W-hole is an innovative system designed to support urban waterworks by creating multiple urban basins, widely diffused around the city and helpful in emergency situations. In normal conditions this system harvests, purifies and distributes rainwater, connecting public areas to domestic ones and thus allowing to reduce the clean water consumption as well as changing citizen’s behaviours. The latter objective is also possible thanks to an online platform where different informations are available.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Starting from a deep water’ scenario analysis, it has been pointed out how this resource - once considered limitless and always available - is slowly becoming a limited asset. Nowadays cities do not have predetermined plans to face any situation in case of water shortage due to calamities, waterwork failures etc.. W-hole is designed to slowly be integrated in already existent waterworks while allowing to widely store water around the city, thus becoming an important asset during emergency situations. This project has been developed accordingly to the sharing economy principles and introduces new ways of interaction between citizens and water through three different kinds of intervention (on a private, condominium and public level), bringing water usage to the next level. This new system starts with the urban public structures’ implementation with a symbolic and educational purpose, but it eventually aims to become a gathering place with a practical purpose during normal and emergency situations. At the same time, as a result of the condominium and private intervention, the citizen will be introduced to this new system in a participative way by giving him the chance to interact more consciously with water. Last but not least, it is fundamental to underline the importance of the digital aspect: thanks to an online platform with a personal area, the citizen will constantly be updated on system’s information and water connected initiatives. Finally, the user will be able to promptly check his own water impact and will be advised from the platform itself on how to reduce water waste. For all of the reasons above, this system results to be extremely versatile and could therefore be implemented to any city with different levels of effectiveness.
Key objectives for sustainability
Sustainability is an aspect that has been taken into account in all the elements and processes developed within the system. The system creates and connects every urban basins around the city. On one side this system allows to progressively store rainwater while keeping a minimum water level to be used in case of emergency, meaning that every area in the city is potentially safe. On the other side, the surplus versus this mentioned safety level, allows to employ water in everyday life in many different ways such as parks’ maintenance or even for drinking after phyto-depuration. Furthermore, condominium’s water could be used for personal or shared vegetable gardens and - in case of further water surplus -could even be donated to municipal ones. Moreover, a long-term aim of the system is to foster a more conscious approach towards this precious resource and thus stimulating virtuous behaviours related to the domestic and public life. One of the keys to make this change possible is the mentioned phytodepuration. This natural process will indeed let the citizen understand the water cycle’s circularity and its importance. Another extremely important W-hole’s objective is to reduce the carbon impact related to daily human’s activities by adopting different raising trends such as: home automation, cloud, building’s energy efficiency and the spread of the urban agriculture. Specifically, the introduction of green’s vertical growth on building’s facades would improve their thermal efficiency, leading to consumption’s reduction and therefore to a lower environmental footprint. Finally, W-hole aims to raise awareness also on the invisible water issue thanks to the integration of a condominium agricultural system based on rainwater drip irrigation. In conclusion, W-hole system is designed to create a sustainable development model by improving citizens awareness both on a personal and public level and to satisfy the generation of today needs without compromising the next one.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Besides the functional aspects, also aesthetical ones - both at a physical and a digital level - have been an important focus of this project because they facilitate the communication with citizens. As a result, the different elements spread around the city have been developed as symbols to be easily recognised by everyone. For instance, in public areas there are the so called “water trees” which store and distribute water. They are tied with the surroundings and help to preserve the environment both in a symbolic and practical way. The water trees are also useful to share the square’s water situation (abundancy, normality or droughty) with different colours, which at the same time help to create a suggestive and unique atmosphere. In addition to them, there are also the “water flowers”, which are able to transform humidity to water and contribute to make the environment unique. The same features have been applied to the condominium context thanks to the many panels installed on building’s facades. They cover the building as a skin and are important to collect and store the rainwater in order to always have a condominium basin. Meanwhile, these modules facilitate vertical vegetation growth and, beyond their practical functionality, are useful to communicate condominium’s membership to the system, stimulating other people to join it. Moreover, every single user can symbolically introduce a personal object that exploits the phyto-depuration in his apartment, showing in turn the membership to the system and this new way of thinking. Finally, also the digital aspect has been taken into account because it is extremely important to consistently convey the same information, for example using the same colours and shapes. In this way the user will easily understand the water level and the overall sustainability of the different elements.
Key objectives for inclusion
With regards to inclusivity, W-hole aims to create new places for socialization in key points of the city accessible by everyone such as squares and public parks. This will be possible thanks to many functional and symbolic elements, designed accordingly to the principles of the Design for all. In proximity of these elements new educational activities will take place in order to raise awareness and foster positive practices related to environmental protection and water consumption. Every citizen will be involved and invited to more virtuous behaviours through specific gamification dynamics. It will be possible to take part to a number of challenges as individuals, condominium or even creating heterogeneous groups. Rewards will generally consist in the implementation of public projects and services that will benefit the whole neighborhood. Thanks to its connections, W-hole reduces significantly water impact for each neighborhood joining the project - ensuring both economic and sustainable advantages. Additionally, accordingly to the Sharing economy principles, each condominium’ surplus will not be wasted but rather given to farmers in the city. This will reduce water usage and generate shared value across all the stakeholders. Every citizen will play a role with his own contribution to the common puzzle where everyone is working together for the same cause: a more sustainable future.
Innovative character
As a result of this project, water will no longer be considered as a limitless asset, but instead as a precious resource which everyone should be care about and consciously use. W-hole aims to be employed in different contexts such in apartments, condominiums and public spaces. For instance, thanks to a personal dispenser placed on buildings’ façades, the citizen can anytime take advantage of it for his own purposes. Each element of the system constantly shows to the citizen the water level such as abundance or scarcity so that he/she can behave accordingly. W-hole is mainly a rainwater-based system, designed to be integrated with already existent urban waterworks and is able to reduce the waters’ demand compared to the traditional system. Additionally, the project introduces the sustainability aspect through the phytodepuration, a process that naturally purifies water. This is a fundamental process due to its versatility and its contribution to increase awareness about the topic. Another unique and innovative aspect is the fact that this system allows to always keep a minimum safety level of water that could be used in case of emergency. In this kind of situation, public areas and condominium are indeed connected thanks to the transport units which efficiently solve the problem without causing any discomfort to the citizen. Finally, the online platform related to the system and its gamification approach with a variety of challenges will contribute to the interaction and connection of all the users. Each user will be able to check his water impact trends and progressively adopt more virtuous behaviours, guaranteeing advantages for himself and the whole neighborhood.
