When I looked into the process of wastewater distribution in the city of Newark, I discovered that half of the city is operated through a combined sewer system and the other half by a separate. In the combined sanitary sewage and stormwater run into a single pipe to a treatment facility. This includes domestic,commercial and industrial waters. In case of heavy storms the wastewaterflow exceeds the capacity of treatment plant and the combined sewer overflow is diverted directly into the rivers and bays. That is the cause of the major water contimination. The potential impacts on human and sealife are severe. The governemnt is planning a green stormwater infrastructure in order to provide a buffer that can prevent sewage-contiminated storm water from entering the river.

Daily domestic water consumption in the US

Water distribution system

For my project I designed a system that cleans waste water by using Algae, placed on the building facade. It is a lightweight structure which consists of panals, rotating in 2 axes for maximum sun exposure.  I am using the ETFE technology as a 3 layered cladding system.

Single panel design

Facade design

Site implementation

Student:

Borislava Lyubenova
Faculty:

Willy Muller

Jordi Vivaldi Piera

Starsky Lara