Working at Mill creek so far has had its ups and downs. Almost every time we go to Mill creek we have had excavation, rainy weather, and sometimes bee issues. The slow process of digging has become a large leg of our project. Other than some not so great issues there are equally as many good experiences working with Mill creek. Our client relation with jade and Johanna, the owners of the farm, have been great. We came to them in the beginning knowing what we wanted but knew that there would have to be customization not only geographically but preferably what they want. So far we are doing great over at Mill creek and I think I can speak for my group when I say we are excited about the outcome of our project.
Aquatherapy is a team of designers, including Jared Delorenzo, Paul Gillespie, Wes Thomas, and Christiaan Sidell. Our mission is to incorporate both the fundamental principles of natural ecosystems and the water cycle with design philosophy. By utilizing new conceptual models we are re-thinking the way we process wastewater.
Today the majority of residential and commercial waste water is comprised of roughly 80% grey water and 20% black water. By mixing the two our processing plants are treating much more than is necessary for efficiency. By diverting the grey water into living machines, waste water can be recycled and could dramatically cut the cost and energy needs for water processing.
Overall, our design goal stresses the importance of making this type of technology and design accessible to the masses.
We’ve been meaning to upload some pictures of the progress we’ve made digging the hill up at Mill Creek.
Since these were taken, much more progress has been made. With help from volunteers at Mill Creek, we’re almost ready to start installing our system and tapping into their grey water line.
Here’s a conceptual model of our grey water system integrated into Mill Creek’s urban farm
This is a map of where the Mill Creek Urban Farm will have us install a natural grey-water recycling system.
View Aquatherapy and Farm Philly in a larger map
These images illustrate the overall layout of our system that will be installed at Mill Creek Urban Farm
The cistern that currently collects and stores all of the grey water from Mill Creek’s sink will be used as an overflow chamber for our system. We plan on adding a U-trap with the lowest point leading into our system. Once all of the chambers of our system fill up, the water level will rise into the U-trap and then be diverted into the overflow cistern.
Once we visited our client’s site, we had to adapt our concept in order to fit it into the hillside provided. Mill Creek has a unique aesthetic in the sense that a lot of the work done on site has a friendly, earthy vernacular. We wanted to design our living machine right into their hillside, utilizing the earth as a building material, and providing information to visitors of the farm.
As stated in our Mission statement below; Today the majority of residential and commercial waste water is comprised of roughly 80% grey water and 20% black water. By mixing the two our processing plants are treating much more than is necessary for efficiency. By diverting the grey water into living machines, waste water can be recycled and could dramatically cut the cost and energy needs for water processing. In turn the water you can filter naturally will save you money and spair everyone from another source of needed energy.
Modular grey water system which allows easy cleaning and maintnence.