http://i.imgur.com/KUBAU.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/EzhZ8.jpg



Proposed to catch the fog made by a weather fenomenum named "Camanchaca", which is a dense fog that comes from the ocean. Fog Tower will be used to catch the water and send it to nearby crops. The tower will have a yield of water uptake between 2 and 10 liters per square meter of vertical surface.This tower will be approximately 10,000 square feet of surface, which could produce a minimum of 20,000 liters of water a day.

Now THAT is pretty dang cool. I guess this is something that is known as Farmscrapers. Yay, skyscraper technology is being applied in other fields, as long as there are more buildings. YAY. :)

But how close is this to reality? The lack of details, or even more important, a source, makes me think that this is fake or just a vision.

It's probably just a vision. It was part of a design contest several years ago run by an architecture magazine.


Coastal Fog Skyscraper
BY: ADMIN | DECEMBER - 15 - 2009


3rd Place
2008 Skyscraper Competition
Alberto Fernández, Susana Ortega
Chile

http://www.evolo.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/eVolo08-3rd-0-600x376.gif

Huasco City is a port in the north of Chile. The city is a place of important agricultural development thanks to the Huasco River, but in the last decade the water flux decreased, which will probably lead to agriculture disappearance in the near future. A new strategy is required to obtain water from the Atacama Desert. In this place there is a climatic phenomenon called Camanchaca, dense coastal fog that has dynamic characteristic: condensation at great heights that is carried towards coastal zones by strong wind currents. Its origin is in the anticyclone of the Pacific Ocean that produces a layer of stratocumulus, covering the coastal strip from Peru to northern Chile. The base of the cloud is at 400 meters (with a variation of 200 meters) above sea level. The second layer contains minerals from the sea, in lower concentration than sea water.
The idea is to build towers that collect water from these clouds and provide it to new agricultural land along the coast. The towers are 400 meters-high, and designed to catch water particles in the air that come from the coast to the Valley of the Huasco River. The anticipated performance, ranges from two to ten liters per square meter of vertical surface. Each tower has 10,000 square meters of vertical surface, producing a minimum of 20,000 liters per day, and an impressive maximum of 100,000 liters. There will be enough water to start agriculture in this arid coastal region.
The tower is composed of four components with specific functions:
1. Four sides of high density plastic meshes that serve as water collectors.
2. Four sides of low density meshes (copper) that link the spiral arms.
3. Four spiral arms that serve as structure and transport the collected water into the main cistern.
4. A main cistern located in the base and divided in three parts: a water accumulator in the upper face, a multi-composite filter membrane in the middle, and a circulatory system that distributes the purified water.

http://www.evolo.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/eVolo08-3rd-1-600x300.gif (http://www.evolo.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/eVolo08-3rd-1.gif)

http://www.evolo.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/eVolo08-3rd-2-600x300.gif (http://www.evolo.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/eVolo08-3rd-2.gif)

http://www.evolo.us/competition/coastal-fog-skyscraper/
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Coastal Fog Tower Concept Turns Deserts Into Sustainable Agriculture

Alberto Fernández and Susana Ortega have developed a Fog Tower concept that absorbs and channels water from the surrounding environment. The amazing helical structure would allow for the development of a sustainable agriculture environment at the edge of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth.

The Coastal Fog Tower is highly specialized in this approach, utilizing a type of fog unique to Chile called “camanchaca“. This dense variety of coastal fog stretches from Peru to the northern Chilean regions, it condenses into a low-lying coastal cloud layer (200-400m above ground) that pushes inland with the wind.

Standing 400 meters tall, Fernández and Ortega’s seaside spire is a cloud catching marvel that stands to harvest airborne water molecules in the Huasco River valley. Its construction as a stacked weave serves to trap and wick moisture into the tower, while its spiraling structure provides a large surface area that funnels water into the basement. Here, trace minerals from the sea are filtered out via a reverse osmosis system, which is much more efficient than processing sea water into potable water via desalination plants. The end result is a water distribution system with a planned performance of 2-20 liters per square meter of vertical surface, producing from 20,000 to 200,000 liters of water per day.

Fog catching technology has already been deployed in some areas of Chile, providing a vital resource to communities that need it. The scale and distribution of these cloud castles could take this technology into the future. Whether or not such a tower is cost effective is not known at this time but this innovative design certainly deserves attention for it's inspirational appeal.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news4.8.08b.html
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The world’s driest place to be harvested with fog!
B.Sameer KumarApr 3 2008

The Atacama Desert is the driest place on the planet and many believe that agriculture is almost impossible on this land. But then modern designers along with their creativity and technological brilliance are making the impossible possible. This is being done by harnessing water from the mist clouds that hover above the desert edge with a structure that is almost like a magic site out of an ancient land.

We go to the northern coast of Chile, where Alberto Fernandez and Susana Ortega have conceived of a Fog Tower that absorbs and channels water from its mist enshrouded environs. This pristine helical structure would allow for the development of a sustainable agriculture environment at the edge of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth. One of the most promising approaches to sustainable architecture is the design of structures that benefit from the unique profile of their immediate environment.

The structure looks magical and almost impossible to actually. The Coastal Fog Tower is highly specialized in this approach, utilizing a type of fog unique to Chile called “camanchaca“. Standing 400 meters tall, Fernandez and Ortega’s seaside spire is a cloud catching marvel that stands to harvest airborne water molecules in the Huasco River valley. The Fog Tower is like an inverted screw, to put it in a simple fashion, and is amazing to watch.

More than the structure, it is the idea and the implementation of it that are commendable. The end result is a water distribution system with a planned performance of 2-20 liters per square meter of vertical surface, producing from 20,000 to 200,000 liters of water per day. This structure is a tribute to green designing and architectural brilliance. It shows what we can do when we amalgamate imagination with ingenuity.

http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/the-world-s-driest-place-to-be-harvested-with-fog/
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Coastal Fog Tower Harvests Chilean Mist
by Mike Chino, 04/02/08

In the spirit of Daekwon Parks’ stunning sustainable Symbiotic Superstructure, we’re continuing coverage of the eVolo Skyscraper Design Competition with another incredible entry. This dispatch from the future of skyscraper technology takes us to the northern coast of Chile, where Alberto Fernández and Susana Ortega have conceived of a Fog Tower that absorbs and channels water from its mist enshrouded environs. This pristine helical structure would allow for the development of a sustainable agriculture environment at the edge of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth.

One of the most promising approaches to sustainable architecture is the design of structures that benefit from the unique profile of their immediate environment. Whether it be south-facing solar panels or strategically located wind turbines, maximum efficiency is achieved by making the best of a range of environmental factors.

The Coastal Fog Tower is highly specialized in this approach, utilizing a type of fog unique to Chile called “camanchaca“. This dense variety of coastal fog has dynamic characteristics: stretching from Peru to the northern Chilean regions, it condenses into a low-lying coastal cloud layer (200-400m above ground) that pushes inland with the wind.

Standing 400 meters tall, Fernández and Ortega’s seaside spire is a cloud catching marvel that stands to harvest airborne water molecules in the Huasco River valley. Its construction as a stacked weave serves to trap and wick moisture into the tower, while its spiraling structure provides a large surface area that funnels water into the basement. Here, trace minerals from the sea are filtered out via a reverse osmosis system, which is much more efficient than processing sea water into potable water via desalination plants. The end result is a water distribution system with a planned performance of 2-20 liters per square meter of vertical surface, producing from 20,000 to 200,000 liters of water per day.

Fog catching technology has already been deployed in some areas of Chile, providing a vital resource to communities that need it. The scale and distribution of these cloud castles could take this technology into the future – a seaside vista interspersed with these pristine helical towers would certainly be a sight to behold.

http://inhabitat.com/coastal-fog-tower/

What happened to those gigantic 1km solar wind turbines?
I hope it won't go down the same route, but if anything, it is a great idea by engineers and architects, to at least pave the way for future developments in this technology at large scale.

the problem with those things is that they are too expensive to build and take too much time to actually make profits. they all may be possible, but i dont think many investors will take the risk to join these projects

It looks cool I don't think it'll get done any time soon but we can hope it happens.

wow first the announcement of the mega project in chicago and then this awesome thing. this has been quite a day.

Why are they trying to build a tornado. Two thumbs down

Why are they trying to build a tornado. Two thumbs down

yeah u r right, Brooklyn represent ;)

Fantasy....

This tower is not "on hold". Because it never was even a real project and it probably will never come true. Is just a proposal made a few years ago. There's no reason this tower remains at this sub-category since there's no real chance or interest to build it.