Inspired by the traditional rainwater catchment systems and conceived to provide a space for enviromental reflection, the public art work Impluvium will provide a water feature on the public space and will highlight water itself as a scarce resource.
Impluvium proposes to create a new public space, in which water will be the central piece. The intervention will be able to collect water and will gather people together in an environment as pleasant and climatically comfortable. Rainwater will flow over a conical canopy creating an unique water-based atmosphere.
Impluvium proposes to create a new hybrid landscape, as open work that leaves spaces for new encounters. In this way, the piece dialogues with the environment, reflecting on new ways of coexistence between the natural and the built surroundings, creating new readings that establish a dialogue between nature, man, and his space.
Materials and construction technique
The project proposes the use of wood (structure) and natural fibers (canopy), as an exploration of traditional artisanal techniques with cultural significance. The construction technique will be inspired by the Palapa roofing, a sustainable roofing technique used in Mexico
plant filtration system
The installation will clean collected rainwater with plants, demonstrating how nature cleans water with minimal energy inputs. A water feature with bio-filtered water.
LEARNING FROM CASAMANCE, SENEGAL
One of the most interesting traditional systems to collect rain water are in Casamance, a region from Senegal, which consist of an inverted roofs for water collection, a type of dwelling with a circular mud building built with a ring of rooms around a walkway that circumscribes a central water trench, fed by an opening that allows water into the building. The system also remain cool in very hot weather as the water evaporates. This system, Impluvium , was also used in ancient Greek and Roman houses.
When it rained, water fell into an impluvium—an ancient rainwater catchment system—that used standing water to cool interior spaces in warm weather. A cistern beneath the impluvium stored water overflow for household purposes. The combination formed an ingenious and beautiful manner of collecting, filtering and cooling.
This system not only gives a space the uniqueness of tradition, but also deals with water defines the physical behavior of natural phenomena that the installation will sense and react to.
