Starting in early 2010, travellers will be able to step into the lobby of the ten-storey building surrounded by a lush, vibrant ecosystem thriving off human waste.
Portland International Airport in the US will open a new $241m office building next year that will show how recycled sewage can create vibrant ecosystems.
Travellers visiting the airport will be taught about the airport’s sustainable endeavours in the building.
The building will use recycled (or black) water that the Center for Health and Healing at Oregon Health and Science University recycles, using it to flush toilets.
Worrell Water Technologies will also create gravel-filled tanks that mimic sped-up tide pools to help introduce more oxygen into the portable building. These convert impurities into innocuous compounds before the water is used in the building’s toilets.
Construction on the building started in October 2007. Staff will move into the building in May 2010.
