Water Purification Project Shows Off By Offering Customers Espresso Made With Water From Venice Canals – CoffeeTalk

During the Venice Biennale Architecture 2025, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is serving coffee made from Venice’s canals at the Canal Café. The design studio uses a water purification system to treat canal water and render it potable. The hybrid eco-machine filters sludge from the canals and removes toxins before using it for espressos. The water is then divided into two separate streams: one through an artificial wetland with salt-tolerant plants and good bacteria, which cleans the water naturally while keeping minerals in them; and the other through reverse osmosis and UV light treatment, which remove salt and particles from the canal water and kill germs.

A monitoring system tracks the purification process at the Canal Café, ensuring that the coffee is potable at all times. The studio draws from the city’s Arsenale Lagoon for the project, highlighting flooding concerns and climate change while also serving as a working example of how “brackish” water can still be treated and reused.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has collaborated with US-based water systems engineers Natural Systems Utilities, Italian-based environmental engineering and water engineering company Sodai, Michelin-star Italian chef Davide Oldani, and structural engineers Knippers Helbig. Visitors to the Canal Café can taste the coffee, even though it is no longer in its original state.

Read More @ designbloom