Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 31. (Budapest, 2017)
Piroska NOVÁK: New Acquisitions in the Museum of Applied Arts’ Collection: Clean Water in the Glass - Product Family of Ceramic Water Filters
fresh, innovative projects and thesis works by students, including Virginia Jo’s prototype for a kitchen water filter, part of the family of ceramic water filters known as Clean Water in the Glass. Largely thanks to this momentum, the entire family of water filter products was acquired by the museum with the support of the National Cultural Fund’s College of Visual Artists, which promotes the purchase of contemporary design work.3 The Clean Water in the Glass family of water filters are the work of three designers: ceramic designers Virginia Jó and Lujza Kocsis and glass designer Gyöngyvér Varga. The project, which began as a design task at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in the spring of 2013, explores and provides an answer to a set of problems that affects everyone equally:4 the continual and drastic reduction in accessible sources of drinking water, the rising number of people unable to obtain the daily minimum requirement of clean water for survival and existence, and the small percentage of rainwater and wastewater (so-called greywater) that is reused or recycled. The basic element in this family of products is a fired clay filter, fired at a low temperature (960 °C) and treated with a silver colloid solution. Coffee grounds are mixed into the material to increase its porosity after firing. The resulting porous structure filters liquid passed through it, while the silver disinfects it, thus enhancing its effectiveness. Ceramic materials have been used as filters since ancient times;5 combining ceramics with silver colloids was an innovation of the non-governmental organization Potters for Peace in the 1980s.6 Relying on research by Guatemalan chemist Dr. Fernando Mazariegos and Puerto Rican activist Ronald Rivera, Potters for Peace developed the most effective ceramic water filter system. Their non-profit organization works primarily in countries in need using local materials and involving the local population to produce water filters simply and cost-efficiently using the press moulding technique. The Hungarian designers adapted Potters for Peace’s technology to Hungarian conditions. They examined the state of sewage systems and the supply of public utilities in underprivileged communities 1-2. Virginia Jó, Lujza Kocsis, Gyöngyvér Varga: Prototype of the socially beneficial water filter. Photos by Dávid Kovács 154
