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FRIENDSHIP WC
Tallinn Architecture Biennale, 2022
By 2030, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress. Already, around 700 million people in 43 countries suffer from water scarcity. And while in some parts of the world, the entire daily ration of water is equivalent to a single flush of perfectly potable water in North American and European toilets.
In 2019, the global production of plastics reached 368 million metric tons/year, around only 9% of which is recycled. Friendship Products engage with the issue of plastic waste by reconsidering the function of a bottle after its life as a vessel. After use, each grooved bottle can slot together with another to become bricks to create shelter.
The Friendship WC (water chandelier) uses the Friendship Bottles to consider together the wastefulness of our throw away culture, and in particular the connected materials of plastic and water. Using Friendship Bottles as both bricks and vessels, Friendship WC will release one person’s daily flushed-away potable water in each release.
Friendship WC will stack the bottles around a pool to form a bench and a vertical surface to conceal the circulating water. Using a Japanese Shishi Odoshi balancing technique, suspended bottles will rotate to release the water and return to center to be refilled, in a constant loop. The tipping of each bottle will affect its neighbors to create a continuous collective array.
Design and Installation: Ecological Action Lab, Cornell University
Project Leader: Freddo Daneshvaran. Team: Kate Heath, Zhisui Ren, and Jiayu Su.
Design Advisors: Iris Xiaoxue Ma, Martin Miller
With: Tim Carlson, Friendship Products
TAB Curated by: Lydia Kallipoliti and Areti Markopoulou
With thanks to Tyler C. Williams, Charles Beach Jr., Nicholas Mino and Kurt Brosnan. Special thanks to Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning/Department of Architecture, and to Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum (Estonian Museum of Architecture)
Many thanks to Estonian Center for Architecture, Anna Lindpere - Producer, Ronja Sapoon - Project manager, and to Sonia Ralson - Assistant Curator of TAB curatorial exhibition. And Finally to our amazing volunteers: Mariia Paslova, Greete Siirmann, Lana Vi, Merili Aitsam, Andres Luts, Martin Sept, Blessing Oyetunde, Hardo-Revo Maide, Lauri Kipper , Karen Bergman Wennesland, Joosep Pärn, Laura Haki, Kaari Maria Tirmaste, Katarina Ild, Britta Kari, Siret Ulp, Relika Rämson, Oksana Buziak, Saule Reitel, Heelika Pugast, Kristin Meriniit, Hanna Eliise Kitter, Mariia Ufimtsevs
Photo Credit: Dakota Pace - www.lepace.com ,Tõnu Tunnel - TonuTunnel.com
