Maas Therapy Device
biophytodepuration as urban landscape
Is a semi-utopian infrastructural landscape hypothesis aimed at exploring the possibility of coupling water treatment, public space and urban development.
The projected device follows the functioning scheme of a septic tank, and its main application is to provide a clean body of water for recreational uses.
It settles in Maashaven (Rotterdam), a former piece of (wet) land boarding the river maas where in the 1898-1905 a large basin was excavated to give place to harbour facilities, and it's composed by a series of four different landscapes each one implementing a different sort of water cleansing process.
The therapy to the waters of the Maas is applied only with natural processes that digest the pollution of the river nourishing a biodiverse environment.
Stage A or solid removal chamber
A stone barrier provides the first filtering phase blocking out the gross debris and the wave movement, at the same time, due to the space between elements, a microclimate is created where small plants could grow protected by wind.
Stage B or heavy metals removal chamber
A grid of algae cultivations on vertical supports provides the first phase of chemical purification while offering the opportunity to floating houses, pontoons or other floating programs to settle.
Stage C or fermentation chamber
here artificial wetlands drive the 3rd phase of the cleansing:
different living machines contained by suspended structures implement biophytopurification by means of cleansing plants.
at this stage some productive programs can find place such as small greenhouses.
Further on, the water is pumped up in a series of cascading basins,
this is the stage D or oxygenation chamber implementing a process of forced oxygenation,
fish breeding could take place in these basins to provide entertainment and a playful environment for the inhabitants.
Finally a sand strip (stage E ) gives the last cleaning to the waters of the Maas via the well known slow sand filtration and provides the district with a unique public space where to enjoy sports as well as sunbathing and (eventually) swimming.
The therapy then is not only applied to the body of water, the landscape machine thus descripted should function simultaneously as a purification plant, as public space, and as grid of future development and has the potential to trigger several positive effects for a urban area that's waiting for a new identity such as an increased desiderability and land value
not to mention the potential to clean the greywaters of the new housing development taking place on the northern shore of the basin.
