Belgian designer Vincent Callebaut, who has always been committed to finding solutions to the problem of water shortages that will hit the planet with the demographic explosion that has already begun, has developed over the years several concepts that provide new perspectives. One of these is the 'Physalia Project', a cluster of amphibious gardens capable of acting at the same time as a traveling exhibition space and cleaning system for the rivers of Europe.
Let's not hide it: our survival depends on the amount of clean water to drink. According to analysts' estimates, however, 1 in 8 people already do not have access to drinking water today. The UN reports that 4000 children die every day from poor water quality, and by 2050 a quarter of the world will live in areas perpetually short of water supplies. It is a disastrous scenario.
From these premises, Callebaut thought of Physalia: more than a vessel, an aluminum hydraulic network, a filtering system capable of 'dredging' and purifying river waters during navigation. The cover of Physalia, in titanium dioxide, makes the system 'self-cleaning' and able to produce more energy than it consumes through solar panels placed over its entire surface, and systems capable of converting the river currents into electricity, when the vessel is stationary.
Interiors - Beautiful in the face, beautiful in the heart: Physalia hosts water gardens, exhibition areas and research laboratories all around an amphitheater designed to host important events. “A real ecosystem capable of reacting to the surrounding environment, a fragment of a living planet,” declares the Belgian designer.
Physalia wants to bring people together around the concepts of respect for water, dynamic balance and sharing in motion.
We do not have many details on the scope of the project and its effective applicability: it is, after all, a general vision, a concept, and as such it must be taken.
We like the idea, and it is of indisputable beauty.
