x
Type in what your trying to find.
Type in what your trying to find.
Jellyfish Barge by StudioMobile. Photo Matteo de Mayda
Italian architects Antonio Girardi and Cristiana Favretto of StudioMobile have created the Jellyfish Barge, a floating greenhouse that can produce enough food for two families without consuming land, fresh water or energy.
The Jellyfish Barge project was inspired by a World Bank prediction of the world’s population growing to almost 10 billion during the next 40 years and a commensurate 60-70% increase in global food requirements of 60-70 percent. But meeting this growth will be difficult when the supply of cultivable land and fresh water resources is already being stretched.
Jellyfish Barge is a floating agricultural greenhouse which can purify salt, brackish or polluted water using solar energy. It is built with low-cost technologies and simple materials, so it can be manufactured as a simple DIY kit.
A wooden base of about 70m² (750 sq ft) floats on drums made from recycled plastic. This supports a glass greenhouse for hydroponic growing of crops which allows a 70% saving on the water requirements of conventionally grown crops.
Seven solar desalination units arranged around the outside of the barge perimeter can produce up to 150 litres per day of fresh water by distilling salt, brackish, or polluted water. Water evaporates using the sun’s energy, leaving dissolved salts behind. By collecting the water vapour and condensing it into ‘rain’, the solar desalination system of the Jellyfish Barge replicates the natural water cycle on a smaller scale.
The barge design is modular; each Jellyfish Barge can operate independently, or they can be combined into a larger system.
Coordination by Prof. Stefano Mancuso
Project by Antonio Girardi and Cristiana Favretto
Cultivation by Elisa Azzarello, Elisa Masi, Camilla Pandolfi and LINV researchers
Solar desalination by Paolo Franceschetti
Supported by Regione Toscana and Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze
Promoted by University of Florence
Jellyfish barge is a project developed by Pnat
More at StudioMobile
