Water Filter – Aesthetic and Alternatives

I plan on making a water filter for my final project. The aesthetic I plan to use for the decorative base is based on Tibetan design. However, the pipes and other hardware will also contribute to the aesthetic. For the pipes, valve, and other hardware, I am planning on going for a classy, part rustic, part industrial chic aesthetic. I will achieve this by using copper pipes and fittings as they are beautiful (especially compared to PVC or PEX piping), won’t corrode, and doesn’t leach chemicals into the water. For the funnel and pipe-holding unit at the top of the filter I plan to use a 3D printed food-grade polymer and will likely choose black or white for the color as to make this component as subtle as possible. These pieces will fit into a 3 gallon glass water jug that will serve as the container of this filter system.

Based on the (necessary) piping in this design, an obvious alternative aesthetic is the iconic Steampunk aesthetic. I have attached a steampunk aesthetic inspiration photo resembling a water filter below.

I sketched what my project might look like if I followed a steampunk aesthetic. Since this is just a sketch I let my creativity run wild and added a bell and unnecessary cogs. That got me thinking that it would be really awesome to add a flowmeter which turns the cogs and eventually rings the bell when the activated carbon needs to be replaced. I will not be attempting that for this project but maybe in a future project someone could do that!

Another aesthetic I could explore is Art Nouveau, utilizing the whiplash curve and an onion-like design for the water input funnel I sketched this project with an Art Nouveau Aesthetic as well.

I really like the way this sketch turned out, and it’s making me reconsider my design aesthetic. I really like the curving legs, the shape of the funnel at the top, and the stand to put your water bottle on. I could add another perpendicular piece of wood under the (faintly drawn) water bottle to make that more stable. The curving legs would be relatively easy to cut beautifully with a laser cutter. Ideally I will make the funnel myself out of 3D printed food-grade material, which would allow me to make it whatever shape I want. I would love to adopt this ‘bulging’ funnel design in the final model as I like the way it mirrors the shape of the (3 gallon) glass jug underneath. I also like the curves in the output pipe in the Art Nouveau sketch but I’m sure those curves would be very difficult to make cleanly and so I will not attempt to add that detail to my final design.

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