Regional Holcim Awards competition

Next Generation 1st prize 2008 Latin America

Coastal fog-harvesting tower, Huasco, Chile
Project data
Type of project Landscape design
Estimated start Not applicable
of construction

Main author
Name
Profession
Organization

Alberto Fernandez Gonzalez

Architect

City/Country

Santiago, Chile

Further author(s) & legal guardian(s)

Further authors: Ortega Gomez, Susana Valeria, Designer, Santiago, Chile

Comment of the Holcim Awards jury Latin America

The tower enables new agricultural development in previously unproductive coastal areas north of Huasco, Chile.

The Huasca region in northern Chile is an agricultural region that depends on water for irrigation from the Huasca River. Water
availability has decreased over the last decade, and new solutions have to be found to obtain water on the coast of this desert
region. This project intends to use of the Camanchaca, a coastal fog originating from the anticyclone of the Pacic and condensing behind the coastline. The striking ideas consist of towers with a height of 200m catching the water particles and
conducting them to the base of the tower, where the liquid will be ltered through a reverse osmosis process to eliminate
salt. The tower is constructed as a spiral structure with a wooden base, copper mesh providing conduits and a plastic skin. The
water catching system only uses wind energy and gravity in its principal working process. The jury was delighted by this innovative, simple and elegant solution that will provide water to an otherwise declining agricultural area.

Project description by author

Relevance to target issues by author

Huasco is a port city in the north of Chile. The city has a signicant agricultural industry irrigated by the Huasco River,
but in the last decade the rivers water levels have decreased
making irrigation from the river impossible in the mid-term.
It is therefore necessary to develop a new strategy to source
water for the coastal area west of the Tacama Desert.

Quantum change and transferability

The project uses simple low-cost technology to produce a
large impact in the viability of agriculture in arid coastal
areas. The water capture process is an old system explored
in the eighties but on a small scale. The idea of built towers
comes from the necessity of obtaining water from the coastal fog without the existence of high coastal mountains.
This system provides local inhabitants with a capacity to
improve their standard of living by obtaining low-cost water
to be utilized in agriculture without depleting water supplies
from the river.

A climatic phenomenon of the area called Camanchaca, a

type of very dense coastal fog that has dynamic characteristics: one is condensation that is displaced towards coastal
zones by the wind. The condensation originates in the anticyclone of the Pacic that produces a cloud layer stratocumulus, which persistently covers the coastal strip from Peru
to northern Chile. The clouds form around 400m above sea
level (with a variation of 200m) although humidity is also
present below the cloud height. This second (lower) layer
of fog contains minerals from the sea, but in lower concentration than seawater. Water obtained from the fog therefore requires less ltration than water obtained directly
from sea water.
The tower is 200m high and catches every water particle in
the air that comes from the coast into the valley of the
Huasco River. The water yield is projected to be 2 to 10L/m2 of
vertical surface. Each tower has a vertical surface of 5,000m2,
producing a minimum of 10,000L/day, and an impressive
peak output of 50,000L/day. This quantity of water renders
viable the agricultural industry of this arid coastal area.
The tower is composed of four components:
1. Four sides of high-density plastic lter mesh that are the
main collector system in the tower. The water is collected
with this passive system.
2. Four sides of low density copper mesh that link the spiral
arms and yield water at the rst condensation process in
the fog. These sides form a structural consolidation between the four spiral arms. The four faades contain different mesh designs because this helps to produce different
kinds of lters.
3. Four spiral arms that make the structural possible and
transport the collected water to the main collector. The four
spirals are the same size and made of compressed wood
with a copper conduit inside each spiral from the top to the
base.
4. A main collector in the base is divided in three components: the water tank in the perimeter; a multi-composite
lter membrane in the middle; and a central tank for the
freshwater. Puried water is distributed in four horizontal
arms from the freshwater tank.
The original desert landscape is modied by placing the
tower on the land. The impact of the tower expands the
areas on which agriculture without reliance on water from
the Huasco River becomes viable.

The tower is 200m high, catching each water particle in the air that comes from the coast to the valley of Huasco River.

Ethical standards and social equity

The idea of the tower is bringing to the people of Huasco
another possibility for work that is independent from natural sources of water. This project demonstrates how it is
possible create new development and better opportunities
using nonconventional natural resources. The tower enables
equitable access to water supplies that are made available
not only to those people adjacent to the river.
Ecological quality and energy conservation
The construction system was researched and designed with
materials sourced from natural controlled sources: wood
from the south pine forest (plantation forest), the copper
use is restricted to the thinnest diameter capable of channeling water, and the plastic skin is sourced from recycled
elements. Compared to a conventional system of fog capture, the surface is optimized in the height of the tower
(the conventional system utilizes big horizontal surfaces in
the coastal mountains). The water catchment system uses
only wind energy and gravity is the principal working process. In the main collector, the lter works using only the
pressure differential between saltwater and freshwater.

The original landscape is modied.

1: Skin, and 2: Mesh elements.

3: Spiral structural model.

4: Water capture process.

Geometric optimization of the water capture.

Water particles are condensed.

Reverse osmosis process.

Inside the base of the tower.

Economic performance and compatibility

In the beginning, the project utilizes economical resources
related to the research and technology development. In a
second implementation stage the project requires a cooperative system of funds (government aid) to promote development in the geographical area of the study. In a third
stage the people will fund further implementation based
on greater economic prosperity from the new agricultural
activities.
Contextual and aesthetic impact
The towers are landmarks in this new territory. A great
transformation from the original arid landscape (green
transformation) can be produced. The contextual impact of
the towers extends beyond the agricultural application,
and represents a new horizon to utilize lands previously
considered of low value on the coast of Chile. The project
can create a new form of communitarian expansion using
sustainable resources (communitarian societies).