While liquid fresh water represents only 1% of the Earth’s surface and universal access to clean and potable water remains a major challenge in many regions of the world, designers, researchers, and engineers are taking on the subject.
Initiatives are multiplying. Studios like ciguë architecture ciguë architecture are questioning water supply and filtration in their interior architecture projects, particularly for Aesop. Wind turbine projects like WaterSeer and tower projects like Warkawater are working on water harvesting in arid regions. As for brands, they are also making strides: self-filtering and cleaning bottles from LARQ make access to pure water easier; cosmetics like FORGO adopt waterless formulas and steer their aesthetics towards more transparency; all drawing inspiration from laboratory terminology.
References to water are also flooding from the design, fashion, and set design side, drawing inspiration from its transparency and movements… Just a few days away from World Water Day (March 22nd), here is an overview of initiatives and styles launching the water revolution.
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From science fiction to reality: the beginnings of a water revolution
In anticipation films are wells of inspiration. In ‘Dune,’ the inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis wear ‘stillsuits,’ suits that recycle the body’s water… In reality, initiatives are no longer so far from fiction. Water bubbles made from edible algae to replace plastic bottles; mini-wind turbines producing potable water by harvesting moisture from the air; purifying straws with charcoal… These innovative solutions set new milestones in rethinking the ways we ‘make water’.
Pure and sustainable water at your fingertips: the promise of LARQ bottles
Both highly polluting and toxic due to nanoparticle contamination, plastic bottles are one of the planet’s major burdens. The most viable and virtuous alternative? The filtered water bottle.
With a simple idea to provide access to pure water anytime, anywhere, LARQ is at the forefront of this innovative approach.
Equipped with PureVis™ technology, LARQ’s self-cleaning pitchers and bottles enhance water quality and taste by effectively disinfecting both the water and the container using UV rays. Choosing a healthier and more sustainable hydration option.
The cosmetics industry celebrates water through a lexicon of apothecary
Blue Beauty Lab Biotherm by Universal Design Studio
While water represents the main ingredient, quantitatively and physiologically, in the cosmetics industry, the aesthetics of the sector even celebrate the extraction and distillation processes of the solution.
Dropper bottles as containers, glass ampoules as fixtures, stainless steel counters, UV disinfection lights… Already influenced by post-pandemic sanitary codes, beauty invents a highly desirable laboratory aesthetic.
A newcomer to the cosmetics scene, Forgo has developed, in collaboration with a laboratory in Canada, three concentrated powders containing only six ingredients. Once mixed with water at home, they transform into a foaming hand cleanser. The starter pack includes a reusable glass bottle and paper sachets of powder.
The fashion industry teams up with mineral water brands to raise awareness
In a quest to raise awareness about water, luxury fashion houses Balmain and Coperni collaborate with evian to create exclusive collectible water bottles. Olivier Rousteing even went as far as supervising the creation of a haute couture dress woven from a monofilament derived from recycled plastic bottles from evian.
The transparency of water as a new creative obsession
Ice and pearl necklace by Golem and Laila el Mehelmy © Guillaume Blondiau
Waves Don’t Die chair by Guillaume Grando for Waiting for Ideas © Lisalou & Guillaume
The colors and undulations of the ocean persist
Puddles, waves, swirls, trickles… The ripples of water inspire poetic aesthetics. Mathieu Lehanneur (designer of the year 2024) recently unveiled his Olympic lamp for the Paris Olympics. An eternal enthusiast of nature and science, he chose water as one of the three pillars of his design alongside equality and serenity.
Water dress by Iris Van Herpen, Spring-Summer 2011
