Cleaning water with natural

Matthes und Schultze

Berlin / 2008

Floating public spaces that clean water bodies

Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro has an estuary with natural water bodies intertwined with the dense urban context. The lack of sanitation means that raw sewage is discarded on the river and lagoons, still today. To raise awareness of the issue and create solutions to mitigate the pollution, the Berlin-based environmental engineers with vast experience in landscape restoration, created the floating platforms with vegetation that remove micronutrients from sewage. It combined floating pathways that allowed maintenance and a pleasant walk for a cardominated public realm.

My role was to translate the engineering prototypes into an attractive design and create illustrations that explain the concept.

The studio no longer exists due to the advanced age of the founders.