Water Filtration Along the Eerie Lock Canal

In 2200, the world declared the lack of clean water a national emergency. Human’s effects on nature had finally caught up to them. After a brief period of devastation, the world tried to take action. It was established that all future construction of buildings and site design has to incorporate any type of water filtration system as nature is unable to function on its own. As the years passed the integration of water filtration systems became normalized and clean water was introduced back into society in small amounts. Although the world took action, the demand for clean water is always more than what is being produced at any given time, creating a new culture change around the concept of clean water. It is not only needed but is considered sacred. By 2273, 250 years from now, the world is fast-paced with new designs in technology and, in turn, the way of living. In this world, the art of slowing down and experiencing a moment of leisure and contemplation is craved. With this new age of invention and technology, many who experienced the past remember the times of simplicity and a slower-paced world. Soon new site designs popped up as water filtration systems that supplied themselves off of the rivers that run through the state of New York. With the already established lock systems, designs appear across the landscape and draw from the water that ran through this pre-existing system. This weaving design allows for easy manipulation to save the land and provide clean water to neighborhoods that gathered around it. This design also allows people access to clean water while simultaneously providing a space for relaxation and space to contemplate the bustling city around them. From day to day, people wander and follow the patterns of the pipes on the surface of the platform, mesmerized by the purity of the water and the maze-like feeling the site established. The tanks of clean water remind visitors of the legendary beauty that was lost with the destruction of the naturally appearing landscape. Stories were passed down through generations and many children who wander along the lock find themselves daydreaming of a seemingly fictional world. Children and adults alike stop as their gaze follows the filtered water from the pump house. One child walks forward absorbed with the water flowing through the pipes on the outside of the pump house. These pipes act as a wall and the child feels a sense of peace within an enclosure that in actuality is part of the outdoors. The pump house sits on a glass floor and they watch as the dirty water is siphoned up into the tanks where it is then filtered. From there, they run and crawl beneath and around the exterior pipes as they watch the, now clean, water as it flows to the pipes on the roof and distributes to the pipes that form a porous wall. From here they laugh and run in curling directions as they watch the water flow across the site’s surface underneath the layer of glass that encloses it. On the surface, the swirling design of the pipes causes the child to feel the same peaceful lull as a lazy river. With curiosity and fascination, they go on to admire the pools of clean water and continue their adventure as their parents call them along. Groups of all ages gather to collect clean water while maintenance continually visits to check on the status of the pipes and filtration system in the main pump house. The relationship is reminiscent of Mother Nature as she once cared for the landscape that acted as home to both animals and humans. Now, only humans are left to care for these sites they have created to replace nature that once took care of them on its own. Although all that visit these sites come and go and never experience it for an elongated period, the characteristics of the site, pumphouse, and surrounding tanks establish a feeling of longing for a world that was without devastation. A world that was left behind long ago.