The Green Waters installation proposes a utopian, forward-looking design plan for the relationship between vegetation and domestic water consumption, playing with fiction to suggest real possibility. The design dramaticizes and illustrates the latest developments in green bathroom design in terms of ecological usage, recuperation and natural filtration of domestic gray water.
The antipollution virtues of plants are well known in terms of air purification. Plants have also been successfully used for water filtration, especially in terms of cleansing natural pools and the purification of urban waste water. Yet vegetation's capacity to filter water remains largely unexploited in terms of domestic use.
The bathroom featured in the Green Waters design explores water filtration research and plants' potential to present a singular design aesthetics. The design describes and follows the flow from rainwater to shower to washing machine, via a mini ecosystem of natural plant filtration. Here, ceiling and walls are overgrown with airy, delicate plants (Asparagus plumosus) simply cultivated in flower pots that allow them to grow upside down (Sky planter – design: Patrick Morris). Above the shower, a planted vault curves beneath the weight of rainwater which is stocked and treated before being used for the bath and shower. On the floor, a three-ring basin follows water flow from the shower to the washing machine. The plants gather, filter and recycle water. Green Waters also sets forth the latest ecological innovations in terms of flooring, wall treatments, dry toilets, and low-flow, water economizing faucets.
