A positive energy amphibious garden to clean European waterways, designed by Vincent Callebaut, the “Physalia” project is an architectural prototype that aims at meeting the need of the mutualisation of the knowledge in terms of sustainable management of the water resource. It is a half aquatic and half earthly amphibious vessel, a floating agora which has not only the objective on a geopolitical scale to deal with ecology ad water saving, but also on a European scale, to elaborate strategic solutions to animate the fluvial network.
Physalia is a vessel, 100% self sufficient in energy, whose bionic structure is inspired from the pneumatophorous called also “Physalia physalis”, means “water bubble”! As this aquatic pneumatophorous, the project is relevant by its perfect symmetry, its oblong shape and its translucent aspect. It is a sum-up of the nature and the biotechnologies dedicated to navigate on the main extra-European rivers between Danube and Volga, between Rhine and Guadalquivir, or also between Euphrate and Tiger. It is a poetic invitation to travel, a sensory experience for the transdisciplinary research, geopolitical debates, popular pedagogy and therefore for the emergence of an ecologic avant-garde on the water theme. It is a charismatic place, an abstraction of landscape opened on the world and mixing the European cultures through an innovative special assembling. It is a ecosystem reacting to its environment, a fragment of living earth, inviting the fauna and the flora of the fluvial biodiversity to come and make its nest in the city!
建筑师Vincent Callebaut设计的Physalia，其设计灵感来自于水母，它可以在世界范围内的任意河流中漂流，同时对河水进行净化。船体采用仿生技术研制，被设计成鲸鱼体型的流线型。Physalia在航行过程中的能量补给都不需要外界提供，完全依靠自身的自然循环系统。不过，想要让整个生物链合理有效地运转，则需要跨学科领域的合作与开发。首先，游船顶部采用光滑的双重气动薄膜，并载有太阳能电板，船体表面有一层二氧化钛介质，它可以与紫外线发生反应从而清洁水体。同时，游船在行进的过程中，将河水抽到游船体内，通过 “水”、“地”、“火”、“空气”四部分循环过滤后，河水就能完全被净化，达到直接饮用的标准。除此之外，游船的顶部种有绿色植被，可以用来收集雨水，当它行驶到近海或者大洋中去，同样可以对海水进行脱盐。
头部正视图
尾部正视图
内部分层结构图
“水”、“地”、“火”、“空气”四部分功能图
