Life on Waterpod: Barge-borne home shows off sustainable living

by Emily Gertz

categories: Activism, Art, Cities, Clean Energy, community, DIY, Food & Agriculture, Imagining the Future, Popcult, Recycling, Solutions, Water

Published August 15, 2009 @ 10:44AM PT

The Waterpod is a floating home-sculpture-adventure in sustainable living.

“It’s about getting people to talk about how we can sustain ourselves in the future,” said artist Mary Mattingly to The Brooklyn Paper earlier this year. Mattingly worked to realize the project for three years, and is living on Waterpod herself May through October.

The recycled, 240-foot long, 3,000 square foot art barge, which has been docking at various points around New York Harbor this summer, features a geodesic "Buckyball" dome as a living space, a flock of four egg-laying hens (Gilly, Rizzo, Marble and Bonzai), a hydroponic garden, a greywater recycling system and human-powered water pumping, energy generated primarily from four rooftop solar panels (along with a bicycle power generating station and a "picohydro" energy system for brief bursts of extra energy when needed), composting toilets, and a space where the public can come on board for performances.

New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik has lived abord Waterpod intermittently. She reports being "surprised at how easy it was to adapt to the Pod’s eco-conscious systems (reuse everything, don’t mind the ever-present flies, and compost, compost, compost)..."

...and how quickly the rhythms and routines of urban life melted away. Even though the Pod was docked only blocks away, a brief visit to the farmer’s market in Dumbo one Sunday felt like a trip into “town” – and into civilization. Ooh, look! A flushing toilet!

It's an experiment in ecologically sensitive living that evokes memories of "Biosphere 2" (the Earth is Biosphere 1, natch), the troubled 1990s project that sought to prove the viability of closed-system, grow-your-own living.

But the artists living on board Waterpod and managing its systems have learned (consciously or no) from that semi-fiasco. Although they grow greens and veggies on the barge, and of course get eggs from the hens, they're accepting food donations as well. They get fresh water from rainfall and the river. And they're regularly welcoming the public aboard: check the docking schedule to find out where to meet the barge.

I imagine that some will see this as a wholly unrealistic way to live. But none of the systems are radical: stationary bikes are already being used to generate energy, for instance; places like Vermont Law School are saving water and chemicals by using composting toilets; city gardening is making a big comeback for both economic and food safety reasons; and of course solar power generation is a proven technology that's getting better all the time.

Even the thing that seems most unusual about Waterpod -- living on the water -- is actually common all around the world.

Perhaps Waterpod is actually the leading edge on restoring ourselves to a way of life that can really endure: one that values clean water and uses it wisely, relies on local food supplies to a much greater extent, takes advantage of clean energy sources to the fullest, and both depends upon and gives back to the local community.

Look at it this way: If they'd called it "Extreme Houseboating," then everyone would want to do it.