Technion students exhibit in London after winning global competition

Israeli idea is to collect dew from air and turn it into 48 litres of water per day.

By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
ein gedi waterfall298.88 (photo credit: )
ein gedi waterfall298.88
(photo credit: )
Two Israeli students currently have an exhibit on display in central London after winning a global competition. Technion PhD student and architect Joseph Cory, together with fellow student Eyal Malka, won the competition last month. Organized by Arup, the international global consulting engineers, the pair won first prize in Arup's drawing water challenge with their idea, WatAir. The winning entry is currently on display in central London at the Building Center Trust, an independent charitable organization that supports educational, research and cultural activities connected with the built environment. The Arup Cause, an initiative that celebrates Arup's 60th anniversary, launched the international competition last September, seeking inspirational ideas to help bring clean, safe water and sanitation to millions of people around the world. Cory and Malka's entry was chosen out of 100 entries submitted from more than 20 countries around the world. Cory and Malka's concept is a 96 m. inverted pyramid array of panels that collects dew from the air and turns it into 48 litres of fresh water per day. The implication of this scheme is that it could provide a constant supply of fresh water in polluted and remote areas in just about any climate. Jo da Silva, one of the Arup judges of the competition, said WatAir was a wonderfully simple concept that drew its inspiration from nature. "We felt great to participate in such an important competition even before we received first prize," Cory said. "Trying to do good for a better world through design and architecture is the ultimate goal." The Technion Institute of Technology is Israel's leading science and technology university. Home to the country's first winners of the Nobel Prize in science, it commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in nanotechnology, computer science, biotechnology and medicine.