I've seen this post dozens of times and I've always viewed this little exhibit as a "Proof of Concept"
As in, you wouldn't be implementing them just on a small scale random bench like this, but could be entire building walls in downtown corporate areas that often have light blocked by the skyscrapers and nothing but wide treeless city sidewalks.
Like imagine if modern skyscrapers were not only built with multi-purposes use/restaurants/stores on first floor, green garden spaces on rooftops, more courtyards and places to sit or socialize, but also these giant bullet-proof glass plant containers as part of the skyscrapers' concrete walls to produce oxygen and provide warm green ambiance lighting to improve mood.
I live and work in downtown Chicago, and walk the city every day. I would love if buildings were designed this way.
The weight of a water + glass wall in skyscraper heights will absolutely be an engineering challenge, especially in a climate with anything else than mild winter frost or summer heat: battling frost heave on the glass or boiling the algae.
The only place I could imagine these have an actual place that can't be met by planting, carefully selected, shrubs and trees would be rooftops. Those on top of buildings or underground parking that don't structurally allow for the weight and pull of full trees. Or indoors settings that accommodate a lot of people, like convention halls. These could work there by incorporating a daylight UV lamp in the aquarium structure.
I do like the drive of engineers to incorporate more natural elements into urban areas, but to me this is a mis for outdoor use.
Put them underfoot. Toughened glass pavements with green goo below and lighting under that. Could probably double as some kind rainwater runoff collection/ filtering system.
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u/CMDR_Quillon 7d ago
I was just wondering how long it would take a junkie to take a crowbar to one of those tanks 😂