There are over 1200 urban farms in Detroit. While the practice of cultivating food and creating shared growing environments has proven critical to the well being of many neighborhoods in the city, questions around water management and sustainability endure. For one, urban farms are struggling to develop sensible systems for irrigation: tapping into the city’s drinking water, for instance, proves economically infeasible due to integrated sewage treatment costs. Additionally, conventional catchment surfaces, such as roofing materials, pavements, or painted patios, triggered by the slight acidity of rainwater risk contamination to the local food supply. Finally, while runoff is a threat to water quality in much of the industrialized world, the addition of agricultural waste in urban scenarios acutely exacerbate the problem. In response, Cloud Tower develops a water catchment and storage prototype that communicates the importance of protecting water quality in Michigan using a discernible product, creates a practical, lightweight irrigation system that’s portable and easy to deploy using expandable membranes, and imagines an urban marker that residents can self manage.
2016
Funding/ Grants:
University of Michigan OVPR
Principals:
Anya Sirota, Jean Louis Farges
Design Team:
Jonathan Watkins, Sam Okolita
Awards:
Michigan Design Prize Finalist
Patent:
Mobile Fabric Water Tower System (2022)
US Patent Application Number 16/648,081