Our Aquafil® drinking water fountain and refill stations are popular with architects and city planners for a number of reasons. They encourage a healthy lifestyle, offer useful amenity for the public and can become defining feature points of any civic space.

Here are ten key reasons why architects should choose an Aquafil® product for their next civic project:

1. A convenient source of great-tasting drinking water

Our product provides access to clean, safe, accessible drinking water. Why is that important? Because architects specify the amenities that affect the user experience, and making free drinking water available to the public is a wonderful amenity. Tap water in many parts of Australia is notorious for having a bad rep, even though it’s generally safe to drink. Many Aquafil® stations also include water filtration to cater for this.

2. A place to gather at

Aquafil® drinking fountains and refill stations are great at providing a focal point for people to meet and gather. Our signature range of water drinking fountain and bottle refill stations also include signage panels, creating a distinctive and easily recognisable feature in any public space.

3. Aesthetics

Our product line offers a range of designs to choose from. Architects can select from our wall-mounted Fresh Refill Station and Drinking Fountain range to our more unique Alpine Double Water Refill Station. Our designs are modern and practical, making them great additions to schools, universities, medical centres, and outdoor public spaces.

4. Functionality

Architects choose our Aquafil® products because they are functional and well designed. Our signature line of water stations have been designed, engineered and assembled by our team in Sydney, and our years of experience in the industry is testament to our success.

5. Environmentally Friendly

Our product line of refill stations encourages the use of reusable water bottles over single-use bottled soft drinks and water products. Single-use plastic drinking bottles is an inefficient way of delivering drinking water and has become a burden on our environment; the majority of plastic bottles are not recycled and end up in landfills every year. Australia alone spends more than half a billion dollars a year on bottled water. Having our line of drinking fountains and refill stations easily accessible can help alleviate our large use of plastic bottled water.

6. Educational

Aquafil® stations are a great way of teaching environmental awareness. They facilitate the use of reusable bottles and encourage drinking more water over sugary soft drinks. Our stations incorporate customisable signage panels that help communicate this.

7. Economical

Using a drinking fountain and refill station can save a person a lot of money. Architects love using our products because they provide a way for their users to save money on purchasing bottled drinking water or soft drink.

8. Inclusiveness

Aquafil®’s products are easily accessible by anyone who needs it. Most of our range are child- and wheelchair-friendly, with DDA compliance. Our products have multiple points of access, and we have products suited to indoor and outdoor applications. And for pet lovers, we even have an added option of a dog bowl!

9. Ergonomic

An architect also has to consider a person’s comfort when using their facilities and the items on it. That’s why they choose Aquafil®. Our drinking fountains are easy to reach, with buttons that are durable and comfortable to use. We have spent a lot of time developing suitable valve technology to make the product as long lasting and easy to use as possible. Our refill stations also provide ample space to put your water bottle in and work wonderfully.

10. Taste

Our product offerings are also popular with architects because of the great taste of the water. Our optional filtering systems and anti-bacterial nozzles ensure that the water that comes out is clean, fresh, and tasty. A lot of time, tap water can have odd flavors due to the chemicals used as a disinfectant. Our additional layer of filtration removes all the impurities from the water so that it tastes like water and nothing else.

Mankind has faced the challenge of obtaining safe drinking water for millennia. Many cities were founded on rivers, as water was recognised as one of the key ingredients for sustaining a civilisation. In the last two centuries, in particular, society has developed a greater understanding of water quality through science and engineering principles. Providing safe drinking water has been one of the most important public health goals for countries internationally, and is undoubtedly one of the key contributing factors of global growth in human population. Today water filtration is taken for granted in many parts of the world, although there is still scope to improve this. Aquafil® water drinking fountain and bottle refill units make use of this technology, bringing clean, fresh-tasting water to public spaces.

So how is water prepared so that it is suitable for drinking?

Filtration is an important part of the equation when it comes to clean drinking water. The first recorded experiment for filtration in modern history is attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, who believed that using sand to filter seawater would purify it. His hypothesis proved to be incorrect, but it paved the way towards further studies on clean drinking water filtration, such as sand filters in 1804. This is one of the first steps in filtration.

After filtration, the use of disinfectants is required to clean the water for drinking purposes. In 1905, chlorine was first used as a primary disinfectant for drinking water in Lincoln, England. This was the first recorded use of chlorine as a permanent water chlorination technique. This method was utilised in Lincoln to replace slow sand filters when it was discovered that the filter was faulty and the water supply was contaminated. The chlorination method introduced by Dr. Alexander Cruickshank Houston fed a concentrated solution of chloride of lime to the water that was being treated. Eventually, chlorine gas was used to clean water instead, which is how countries such as the USA disinfect their drinking water.

For Australians, the government and water authorities use settling, coagulation, filtration, and disinfection techniques to provide safe drinking water through taps. They have to use sufficient disinfectants to stop any re-growth of microorganisms during the delivery of tap water through pipes. While tap water is generally deemed safe to drink in Australia, they can still contain many impurities, both natural and artificial, which can affect the taste.

Our Aquafil® water drinking fountain and bottle refill stations offer an additional level of filtration as an optional design feature. Our filters can reduce the chlorine taste as well reduce possible contaminants such as dirt, lead particles and asbestos fibers in drinking water. As an added benefit, our filters slot perfectly inside our water stations, protected and concealed from public view. Many stations also have the added benefit of anti-bacterial bottle refill nozzles that provides an extra layer of safety for users.

Water is a key factor in the wellbeing of our communities. Many cities and civilisations were founded around water bodies as it is a crucial resource for survival. Filtration of water has come a long way, especially in the last 150 years, with the advent of modern science and engineering. Aquafil® water drinking fountain and bottle refill stations make use of this, by offering high quality, accessible drinking water products available to the public with the latest in water filter technology.