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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2008

  • Work on this object began.

2013

  • Work on this object ended.

2016

2025

  • You found it!

Safe Agua Water System

This is a Project. It was designed by Penny Herscovitch, Dan Gottlieb, Liliana Becerra and Students and faculty, Designmatters, ArtCenter College of Design. It is dated 2008–2013. Its medium is gota a gota: plastic barrel, wood frame, hose, injection-molded plastic faucets, abs plastic faucets, bicycle parts; relava: powder-coated wire frame, plastic tubs, drain connector.

For residents of Chile’s campamentos (informal communities), running water is a luxury few can afford. To assist families in completing daily tasks like washing dishes, a team from the Designmatters program at Art Center College of Design collaborated with the NGO Un Techo para Mi País and local community members to develop a gravity-fed water system called Gota a Gota (“drop by drop”). Water collected in an elevated storage tank flows down a hose to faucets that have flexible nozzles and on/off handles. To get water up to the elevated storage tank, the team included an easy-to-operate foot pump that moves water from a ground-level tank.

  • Q Drum
  • linear low density polyethelene (lldpe).
  • DO90.018

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/420778979/ |title=Safe Agua Water System |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=22 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>