UTIXO: Vancouver Kinetic Rainharvester

description

Utixo - a kinetic rainwater harvester, named after the Bushman rain god in Southern Africa - aims to intrigue and educate viewers by sparking conversations and posing the question, “why”? The “West Coast sport” aesthetic of Utixo, combined with a biomimetic form - which informs the viewer when the rain barrel is full by closing it’s mechanical “petals” - is sculptural while providing the unique function of harvesting rain water without the use of a building rooftop or downspout system. Urban agriculture experts from Fresh Roots Urban Farm, Victory Gardens, The Edible Garden Project and Shifting Growth all state that rainwater harvesting is not commonly undertaken in the urban farm setting due to lack of nearby rooftop space. Utixo solves this problem while making the statement that rainwater harvesting is not something that should be overlooked, even in Vancouver.

How it works: The leafs are open when the tank is empty and as the tank fills up, a float lifts the wings to a close as it gets filled up. This is the first of hopefully many iterations toward interestiung ways to look at kinetic structures in public.