WaterLab Part 1 Project 2020 Vilius Petraitis Manchester School of Architecture Manchester | UK WaterLab is a series of Public water treatment probes each coupled with a community space. Each probe undertakes a different water purification phase to treat the contaminated water of river Irk over a 50-year time span. The prototype engages people to participate in the six sequential stages of water purification. The probes are an engagement with and healing of Irk Valley to participate in both its past and potential futures. Post industrialisation has led to the Irk’s desertion, places that were built to prioritise wealth creation have turned into obsolete relics. WaterLab questions the impulsiveness of orthodox routines and points to the futures we might build. As the water is cleaned incrementally year on year, visitors experience directly the archaeology of Irk Valley in a state of flux. Technology is only part of the answer to our challenges with water. What is essential is our human relationship with it. How can life change as our relationship to water transforms? Tutor(s) Dan Dubowitz Carrie Lawrence