This concept focus on collecting water directly from the rain and from atmospheric humidity, with benefit to get more rain  water (compare to traditional roof collector)

The problem here is briefed, with 3 different possible path:

 1.Water-efficient Landscaping around the building

2 Innovative Wastewater Technologies

3.Water Use Reduction

I am working on the number 1) and in particular, my objective is to maximize the amount of captured rainwater in existing building which is the major issue for me (new building can be designed to address this problem, there are many around and more in the future).

Objective: maximize the captured rain water and the atmospheric water (condensation) in order to  improve the traditional harvesting system

The first logical thing that came to my mind was to increase the roof area by using reverse umbrella forms or similar. This kind of structure is difficult to build in existing building since the water carry a significant additional weight (a cubic meter of water is around 1000 kg) to the structural element of the construction.

The second step was to look for other surfaces where collect the rain, and the exterior walls become the area of intervention for this system.

Observation 1 : the rain fall often inclined (wind) Observation 2: a significant amount of water in the air condense in the night on the walls of the building  and dry early morning due to the increased temperature) more or less everywhere in the world.

The questions: Is there any way to keep that condensed water in the walls and store it before dry?  And is it possible to catch the rain on the wall as we do on the roof?

Solution: The wall skin should work as a Sponge a Sponge wall.

Work as a Sponge doesn�t necessary mean that I am going to fill the wall with kitchen sponges.

Sponge is the indication of the performance of the system.

One affordable and durable material is the gutter foam filter:

http://www.americangutterfilter.com/Product-Line-GutterFill.aspx

 I am looking now for different solution  (cost-benefit) to optimize the performance of this concept,  include the �sponge� materials.

Description:

Wall panel made of synthetic sponge capture the �clean� rain water (classic roof catchment system carry pollutants) correspondent indoor pot with plant system depurate the water.

A cylindrical solar powered bar, rolls up and down to squeeze the rain water into the indoor pot (1 solution) or down to the water treatment chamber (2 solution)

 

Phytopurification is an integrated natural water purification system based on the combined effect of various biotic (aquatic vegetation and larger plants, either rooted plants such as reeds or floating plants such as duckweed and water hyacinth as well as bacterial microflora) and abiotic (soil or subsoil; physical phenomena such as sedimentation and adsorption; microhabitat - temperature, oxygenation, pH, and other conditions) components that are found in natural wetlands.

PHYTOPURIFICATION Link

http://www.cesi.it/pagina_2.asp?livello=3&cp=03060000&c2=03060700&c3=03060716&cc=&lang=EN