Cnidaria Halitus a submission to the 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition for Santa Monica
Artist Team: John Eric Chung, Pablo La Roche, Danxi Zou, Jingyan Zhang, Tianyi Deng (CallisonRTKL)
Artist Location: Los Angeles, USA
Energy Technologies: tidal turbines (100% of energy used to pump water for distillation)
Water Harvesting Technologies: solar distillation with Fresnel lens
Annual Capacity: 220 million liters of drinking water
Expressing the mystery and beauty of ocean life, Cnidaria Halitus harnesses the natural forces of the sun and the tides to produce 600,000 liters of potable water each day for the City of Santa Monica. California’s buildings are on their way to becoming net zero energy, yet there is much to be done to achieve the same level of water conservation and generation that we have achieved with energy.
Cnidaria Halitus begins its water generation process by collecting and filtering water from the ocean through a centralized system of pipes that take it to the interior of each of the boilers located at the focal point of a Fresnel lens. To maximize heat collection, the axis of the Fresnel lenses and the collectors consistently track the sun in its daily and monthly trajectory across the sky.
The sun’s heat is concentrated onto the boilers, which evaporate the seawater.
The vapor condenses inside the external membrane, an ultra-lightweight transparent fabric that expands with the water vapor, further increasing the surface collection area and allowing maximum solar radiation on the boiler. The expansion and contraction of the external membrane will give the artwork a life-like expression.
The breakwater is used to channel the currents and to concentrate them in slits, where the turbines are located, harnessing the flowing kinetic energy of the tides to generate electricity. This electricity is used to pump the water up to the boilers and to continue the evaporation process during the night.
Cnidaria Halitus provides a visible solution to the problem of water scarcity, creating awareness while providing carbon free potable water from the ocean to the city.
