This billboard in Peru sucks water out of the air to grow vegetables

In the farming region of Bujama in Lima, Peru, the river water used for irrigation is so polluted with heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium, that the majority of the fresh fruits and vegetables grown here and distributed throughout the capital are contaminated.

So engineering students at Lima's University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) decided to come up with a solution: a billboard that doubles as both a more sustainable and healthier solution to the problem of crop production in Bujama, and a nifty advertisement for their university.

Dubbed the ‘Air Orchard’, this ingenious device has been fitted with 10 dehumidifiers, which filter water from the air into a drip irrigation system that's connected to an urban farm on the ground below. In just one week of operation, the Air Orchard has produced 2,448 fresh heads of lettuce, that are not only free from pollution, but also the pressures of the country’s current water crisis.

Every week this month, the students will be handing out their crops to the locals in an effort to promote their new sustainable urban farm.

Now, before you point out that putting the billboard right next to a busy highway and then using all that polluted air to grow crops for human consumption probably isn’t the best idea, the UTEC students are way ahead of you. "The technology has a number of filters that purify the water and keep it clean," Ignacio Montero, director of business innovation at UTEC, told Adele Peters at Fast Company. "So, depending on the need, the water generated is ready for human consumption or agricultural use."

Watch the video above to see it in action.

"Though the billboard is an ad for the school, the same technology could be adapted for commercial food production," says Peters. "The key, say the engineers, is to build it in a location that has enough humidity in the air - Lima happens to have muggy air that the system can use to water plants, but in other cities, the technology might not work."

If I lived in Peru, I know which uni I’d be signing up for. These kids are awesome.

Comments

Liu Xue: Sculpture

Chinese artist Liu Xue has created some fabulous anthropomorphic sculpture which are sure to tweak your “Eweeee, gross!” button, in a great way. The unusual hybrids are from his series - ‘We are the World’ and they aren’t far from it. Obese fat Buddha men sit on their frog legs or flippers while emaciated men and women balance on chicken legs or dog bodies. The different anatomies merge seamlessly into a viable being. They are distorted and somewhat monstrous – yet at the same time so realistic, one might believe they actually do exist. Liu lives in Beijing, Chaoyang, China and that’s about all we could find out about him. We would love to know a little about his process – any Chinese folks out there that could throw a little research our way? LINK: To Liu’s Website/Blog

Wildlife conservation on ice: frozen zoos to save animals

On the edge: Disease and habitat loss is decimating wild amphibian populations globally, with more than 200 species needing urgent intervention through captive breeding, says Dr. Simon Clulow. In a south-eastern suburb in Melbourne, there’s a zoo. It has no visitors, and there are no animals anywhere inside it. Rather, the Australian Frozen Zoo houses living cells and genetic material from Australian native and rare and exotic species. This place, and others like it, could be a big part of the future of conservation. Department of Biological Sciences’ Simon Clulow and his colleagues make the case for ‘biobanking’ in a recent piece in Conservation Letters. Clulow is keen to stress that this doesn’t mean getting rid of conventional zoos or captive breeding programs. “Captive breeding has had some wonderful successes, and there will always be a huge place for it,” he says. PhD student and lead author Lachlan Howell agrees. “It was captive breeding that brought the giant panda back f...

Room XX

Recently the Spanish Government officially presented Miquel Barceló’s latest art installation in the UN’s palace of Nations in Geneva. The controversial work of art is a massive sculptural installation located on the domed ceiling of the building’s newly created human rights and alliance of civilizations chamber, known as room XX. The work consists of multi-coloured stalactite forms that appear to be dripping from the ceiling. The art project was introduced by the Spanish organization ONUART, which was established in 2007 to promote dialogue, through the use of Spanish contemporary arts to create understanding between cultures and societies and to foster multilateralism at the UN in Geneva. Inspiration: Miquel Barceló’s work often features natural elements and imagery but the chamber’s ceiling takes this idea literally by recreating the natural stalactite forms, albeit through the artist’s lens. Barceló has revealed that the concept for the project came to him while he wa...

Search This Blog