An arboretum in the heart of Budapest. Beneath it wastewater flows. All designed by the Hungarian company Organica, who are enthusiastic about clean water. They cleanse water with plants and microorganisms, as Forbes.hu reports.
Organica deals with wastewater cleaning on a moral, philosophical and economical basis. The point of this technology is to cleanse wastewater and re-use waste by designing an ecosystem and food chain of bacteria, fags, snails and other organisms that consume human biological contamination. The majority of the work is done by the microorganisms. All this is happening in a pleasant green environment which even surrounds the offices of Organica’s buildings.
The enterprise has 90 major investments: 60 operating, 30 under construction. The founder is Attila Bodnár, who graduated from Budapest University of Technology as an architect. He has been designing public and residential buildings and churches for 21 years. He soon became interested in complex ecological models. He saw the growth of population as a challenge to sustainable development, especially concerning water supplies. He was thinking about an ecological and industrial solution that is also viable on the market. He founded Organica by merging six minor companies in 2001. In six years, the reach of Organica exceeded Hungary and 33 Organica systems are in operation in France today. Their primary aim is Asia, which faces the issues of sustainability the most critically.
Water usage is a vital problem in crowded cities. An average European citizen uses 150 liters of water a day, an American uses 300 and a Saudi uses 600. The most self-aware systems use cleansed water 50-60 percent. Clean drinking water is becoming a treasure. The new residential areas of Asian cities use a double aqueduct system: one for cleansed water and one for reused green water. A traditional mixer and settler complex can only be deployed far away from the residential areas, and it can greatly ruin the cityscape.
Organica’s complexes, however, remind of green arboretums and don’t stink, so they can be built even in the city center. It is also advantageous because the transportation of water is much faster and easier this way. One of the most significant issues of this process is to make people accept that they re-use their own waste. It is quite difficult among today’s hygiene standards. It is hard to imagine that the beautiful garden and the disgusting wastewater can coexist at the same place and be parts of the same ecosystem. Bodnár compared this phenomenon to Jing and Jang.
There are three issues concerning the usage of wastewater: the first one is the question of energy. Developed countries spend about 3 percent of their electricity to draining and treating waste water. This needs to be decreased — for example by minimizing the transport distance. The second problem is humidity. The draining of rain water is a crucial question for cities, and “working landscapes” seem to offer a solution. These are areas designed to drain and cleanse rain water. This way the otherwise wasted water can be circulated back into nature and reused in time. The last problem is mud, which is a side product of water cleansing, which needs to be cleansed again. Organica is thinking otherwise. The organic process produces less mud, thus making the system more economical.
Source: dailynewshungary.com
