By Kimberley Mok / Source: TreeHugger

Rather than resorting to heavy, often depressing doomsday predictions about the plight of the planet and all its living creatures — including us — art has the potential of bringing environmental awareness deeper under the collective radar. We’ve talked about how MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program does exactly that, especially during the last few years with public installations created out of compostable mushroom bricks and air-cleaning sculptures.

In keeping with the theme of celebrating healthy water systems, while highlighting the water troubles of the world, the latest annual installation over at MoMA PS1 Gallery is COSMO, an enormous water-purifying sculpture designed by New York City and Madrid-based Spanish architect Andrés Jaque. See how it was designed and made:

Conceived as a “moveable artifact” that is built out of off-the-shelf agricultural irrigation components, COSMO is capable of filtering 3,000 gallons of water over the space of four days. The process involves eliminating particles and nitrates, balancing the pH and increasing the level of dissolved oxygen. Once the cycle is completed, the stretchy plastic mesh at the center of the sculpture will light up, a perfect accompaniment to the various outdoor summer programming and music that happens in the gallery’s courtyard.

The architect — who believes that architecture has a political role — says that the project draws attention to how urban water ecosystems of pipes and waterways work, while also emphasizing the UN’s prediction that two-thirds of the world won’t have sufficient access to water by 2025 — a situation made worse by climate change and cross-border conflicts.

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