Desertification, according to UNESCO, “is the cumulative result of a complicated climatic context and inappropriate land use”, that is, of the overexploitation of natural resources. Overgrazing, deforestation, intensive agriculture, inappropriate drainage of irrigation systems, among multiple socioeconomic and political factors, are responsible for the desertification process that we are experiencing on our planet .
Desertscraper is a project devised by South Koreans Yungi Jung and Jeong Gwang Hwang, who intend to respond to this problem of desertification, which each year transforms millions of hectares that were previously fertile into deserts . It affects everyone, but the machine was designed with China in mind.
The gigantic machine that you see in the image, which, if it were to be produced one day, would work with solar energy, aims to bring life back to those deserts that have been artificially formed and allow those areas to become green again . As I would do it? Through two main actions: transplanting vegetation on that arid surface and improving the quality of the degraded soil . And all this, while, imbued with a nomadic spirit, rolls over the vast desert territories.
The Desertscraper, as projected, is made up of a series of huge farms in whose greenhouses grow modules of plants . In this peculiar rolling skyscraper, which is equipped with a water supply system, even composting takes place. Vegetation is transplanted into the ground when the outer cylindrical belt of the machine comes into direct contact with the ground surface. Also, the Desertscraper is responsible for removing the soil, which increases the porosity of the soil and favors the growth of plants.
This is one of the projects with a visionary vocation that have participated in 2016 in the international skyscraper competition (Skyscraper Competition) organized every year by the American magazine eVolo , and in which architects, engineers, designers or artists usually take part. The jury values the technology used, the sustainable spirit of the concepts and that they are projects aimed at solving, through innovation, economic, social or cultural problems.
Image: eVolo Magazine
