Waterworks: Barge designed for sustainable crop cultivation

The simple structure, made of a 70-square-metre wooden base, rests on recycled plastic drums and keeps afloat a glass greenhouse designed to grow crops sustainably. 

Unlike traditional methods of crop cultivation such as soil or chemical energy consumption, the project, The Jellyfish Barge, can support life via a hydroponic harvesting method of growing plants in water.

The entirely self-sustaining barge is able to purify salt, brackish or polluted water using solar energy. Once the solar power has purified the water using a solar desalination (salt-removing process) system, it is pumped back clean into the barge.

Studiomobile highlights the alarming prediction by the World Bank that the population will reach 10bn in the next 40 years, with water scarcity and cultivatable land presenting major challenges. The Jellyfish Barge is an experiment in finding sustainable solutions to the challenges of the future.

LS:N Global first reported on the use of alternative and sustainable production methods with the Rurban Revolution macrotrend in 2010. For more on how designers are searching for sustainable solutions, read our Seed on The Real Thing, a project that turns Coca-Cola into water.