WAF Headline partner GROHE awards Water Research Prize to Techlab laboratory’s façade solution which tackles water scarcity around the globe with a unique design project inspired by nature.

Greener, cleaner cities

Ecological concerns regarding city planning, biodiversity and sustainability demand the overall need to create healthier, safer surroundings, now more than ever. That is why this year’s festive theme will be focused around “Resetting the City“.

As concepts for sourcing clean energy, reducing pollution, and clean water supplies are now directly impacted by the effects of the pandemic, they are becoming the centre of urban planning strategies across the globe, and have also become the focus of this year’s festival.

A total of 320 hours of inspiring keynotes, sessions and panel discussions will be presented to the WAF community. As a highlight of this year’s festival, architects from all over the world come together to compete with one another to win “The World Building of the Year”, an award which will be unveiled by GROHE on Friday 3rd December as the festival‘s grand finale.

Inspired by nature – a win to fight global water scarcity
GROHE is, once again awarding the annual Water Research Prize to projects aimed at finding creative solutions for water in urban environments. This year’s award goes to Techlab laboratory and its “Aquasorbant Façade“.

Inspired by the Namib desert beetle, the research team designed a façade using honeycomb-like modules which absorb and use moisture in the air to reach indoor thermal comfort.