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Moss can filter water which, when fresh and clean, is a most precious good. The infrastructure required to produce, purify, and distribute water in large cities is, however, mostly hidden from public view. It therefore seemed obvious that the new pumping station in Cologne, located by the banks of the Rhine River, would make this process visible by means of a wall of moss facing the street. It serves to illustrate the basic purification process of water even though the new building houses elaborate filtering technology that is rather different from that of gentle moss-based filtering. The pumping station’s main task is to treat rainwater before it is released into the Rhine River. As such, the building reflects this internal process in tangible terms. The storm water pumping station is one of seven new pumping stations that line the Rhine like a “string” of pearls.
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