The project’s starting point is the ongoing water-supply crisis in the Irish capital of Dublin. New water sources are needed to support the city’s growing population. Abandoned landfill sites in industrial South Dublin Bay are surrounded by a nature reserve, walking trails, and two power plants.

The project’s main concept is to reuse the warmed saltwater rejected from power plants in a mixed use infrastructure for low-cost desalination. Its own waste product, warm brine, discharges to establish a brine aerosol microclimate – the ideal conditions for the generation of salt marsh gardens, extending the nature reserve and preserving the timber structure of the power plant by keeping the wood perpetually moist. The same water source warms a public bath pool on the roof top via heat exchangers.

Read project feature in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

The winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 for Europe illustrate how sustainable construction continues to evolve – developing more sophisticated and multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing the building and construction industry. An ecological reserve and remediation project in Southern Italy, a low-cost flexible university building in Paris, and a participatory urban neighborhood in Vienna won gold, silver and bronze.

András Dankházi from University College Dublin sees the strength of his project lies in considering all elements and their interdependence, from the context down to the building fabric itself. “De-Salination: Symbiotic water supply and landscape regeneration, Dublin, Ireland” won the “Next Generation” 4th prize, and was praised by the jury for translating a complex set of technical parameters into a series of architectural interventions.

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The jury was highly impressed by the young architect’s ability to translate a complex set of technical parameters into a series of architectural interventions, all represented by means of beautiful drawings. The proposed desalination system is transformed into a poetic artefact in the landscape, a “machine à émouvoir” that performs its functions, while touching the senses.

The project’s starting point is the ongoing water-supply crisis in the Irish capital of Dublin. New water sources are needed to support the city’s growing population. Abandoned landfill sites in industrial South Dublin Bay are surrounded by a nature reserve, walking trails, and two power plants. The project’s main concept is to reuse the warmed saltwater rejected from power plants in a mixed use infrastructure for low-cost desalination.