SCHOOL'S OUT

AND IN OTHER NEWS

this guy



is charlie patton, he just invented this



it works like this



the seawater greenhouse

a greenhouse passively converts cold seawater into freshwater. the plants get watered and the temperature is lowered, providing perfect growing conditions for arid coastal areas.



these guys will build it for you

and they did all the science here

and exploration architecture... blew it up here

the basic design pulls warm salty air through a porous cardboard wall that has cold seawater trickling down it. this cools the air in the greenhouse. as the cool air is sucked out the other end of the structure it encounters yet another cardboard membrane, but this one has seawater that has been heated in overhead pipes trickling down it. As the cool greenhouse air meets the warm seawater it gets hot and humid. This heavy air then runs right into a series of pipes that have deep cold seawater in them. As the humid air rapidly cools on these condensers water droplets form and then fall to collect in a subsurface cistern.

Over time a thick skin of evaporated salt crystals forms on, and eventually replaces, the cardboard.

prototypes and pilots



This seems to me like one of the best ideas I've heard about in a while.

but always operating across scales

here

the skin can be recyclable recycled plastic.

off gassing is an issue. dunno, UV stabilizers help.

high speed small scale living systems.



top image, Copywrite. "The New Riviera." 2010. HODGES & CO all rights revealed.