Aqua Dentro

Debunking the Waste Water Taboo: Is it possible to change our perceptions of waste water?

This project is now archived and was part of DDW21

Single tubing detail

Mael Henaff

Aqua Dentro is a combination of modular bio-filters designed to normalise grey-water recycling in the home, giving agency to water consumption and disposal.

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By 2050 the UK will be suffering from serious water shortages alongside sea level rise, both contributing to widespread ecosystem destruction. These phenomena are explicitly linked and largely anthropogenic. Governments are beginning to cotton on to our impending water crisis and as a result expensive and energy-intensive desalination plants are being built world-wide, aiming to meet the urgent need for reliable fresh water. Grassroots water recycling initiatives usually take place in countries where water is scarce and intervention is urgent. In the UK too much water is often the concern. As it increases and encroaches on our living spaces, our first reaction is to block it. Aqua Dentro suggests a not-so-distant future where incorporating domestic water recycling allows for regulated consumption, disposal and reclamation of this finite resource.

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Aqua Dentro onderzoekt proactief een grijswater filtratie systeem, waarbij gebruik wordt gemaakt van gelokaliseerde productie, materialen en planten om de toekomst van onze huiselijke ruimtes opnieuw vorm te geven. Het grijswater dat het systeem binnenkomt, wordt door een reeks biologische filters geleid die van nature voorkomende micro-organismen gebruiken om verontreinigingen in het afvalwater af te breken, voordat het wordt gezuiverd tot drinkwaternormen. De planten die worden gebruikt om het water te filteren, hebben meerdere toepassingen, waaronder koken, schoonmaken en luchtzuivering. Dit proces nodigt ons uit om na te gaan hoe we water gebruiken, wat we erin stoppen en onze dagelijkse water gewoonten.

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This regenerative system is a vision which could result in households reducing their fresh water intake by more than 80% of the 143 litres we use per person daily in drier parts of the UK, and even more in more rain prone areas. The success of this project relies on re-evaluating our perceptions of waste and beginning to welcome these processes into our everyday rituals. Challenging the way waste water is perceived could curb the impending water crisis predicted during this century.