
SEWR Embodiment Image Courtesy of CASE

SEWR Embodiment Image Courtesy of CASE

Rendered View of the Solar Enclosure for Water Reuse (SEWR) System. Image courtesy of Satoshi Kiyono / CASE

SEWR Embodiment Image Courtesy of CASE
Future conditions of water as a limited resource are challenged by population growth, rising living standards, industrial development and increasing urbanization: all key contributors to water scarcity, and increased energy consumption in the built environment. Business-as-usual water management in the coming decades threatens already vulnerable water resources with over exploitation. The Solar Enclosure for Water Reuse (SEWR) system is a stationary concentrating solar-driven hybrid system for reclaiming onsite greywater while decreasing both primary energy consumption and solar heat gain that is associated with glazed building facades and mechanical systems. Modular cast glass geometries are shaped to redirect and capture direct solar irradiation, providing interior shading and diffuse daylight spatial conditions. Coupled with multi-barrier decontaminates building greywater effluent by inactivating pathogenic contaminants. The SEWR system prototype presents a contextual exhibition of the water cycles in the built environment by thrusting water networks out of the ground, out of centralized basement-bound greywater systems; and into proximity with the spaces, humans inhabit.
Related Research
Water Research
Sponsorship to Date:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Awards to Date:
SPARK Award Concept Design
Architect R+D Award
Research Teams:
SEWR team members: Anna Dyson, Jason Vollen, Matt Gindlesparger, Kristin Malone, Peter Stark, Satoshi Kiyono
DRIPS team members: Anna Dyson, Jason Vollen, Aletheia Ida, Rahmi Ozisik, Ryan Gilbert, Andrew Saunders.
Industrial Collaborators:
SOM
Select Publications
Smith, Shane Ida, and Anna H. Dyson. "Framework for Tetra-functional Control of Viscoelastic Molecular Entropy in Biopolymeric Hydrogel Dynamics for Environmentally Responsive Metabolic Processes in Morphological Architectural Membranes." MRS Online Proceedings Library Archive 1800 (2015).
Patents
Solar Enclosure for Water Reuse
Dyson, A. H., Vollen, J., Mistur M., Stark P., Malone K., Gindlesparger M. (2015) U.S. Patent No. 9090486B2.