Milan Design Week begins today, with various international manufacturers and companies showcasing their latest products and developments for tomorrow’s home, guided by a ‘the world is here, the future is now’ ethos.

One of the exhibitors for this year’s show is Hungarian designer concrete firm IVANKA, which will be presenting The Water of Life, a project allowing houses to turn rain into high quality drinking water by filtering it through a bio concrete system.

The new technology makes use of concrete rooftops, surfaces and cisterns developed to collect rain, with a special concrete enhanced with a filtering function and pH neutral orientation to create the new water management system.

“Rain is the initial, the most important and purest renewable source of the freshwater cycle – a much better choice than any other source such as lakes, rivers or mineral waters from underground,” say Katalin and Andras Ivanka, co-owners of IVANKA.

“The technology we developed represents a high ethical value as it turns rain into the highest quality drinking water in a pure and natural way of processing.”

Their exhibition is called RAINHOUSE and will be located at the Temporary Museum for New Design, SuperStudio PiĆ¹ gardens (Milan). It includes a 1:1 model of the real house that was built in the Balaton Uplands National Park for a 6 month pilot test.

At RAINHOUSE, visitors will be able to preview and taste the first harvested and already bottled pure rainwater collection.

IVANKA will also display future rainwater harvesting stations, already expecting that the technology will impact worldwide water management in socio-economic and environmental fields.

“The technology…provides access to affordable clean water for small and big scale users, from families to big companies, leaving the smallest possible ecological footprint in the process,” Katalin and Andras concludes.