GROHE Awards £10,000 Water Prize to Carnegie Mellon Fog-Harvesting Tiles
Fort Lauderdale – October 12, 2026 -- A Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture team has won the £10,000 2026 GROHE Water Prize for terracotta facade tiles that capture fog up to 400% more efficiently than standard flat surfaces.
The award, presented by GROHE for the World Architecture Festival (WAF), went to the project "Bio-inspired Architectural Terracotta for Sustainable Water Harvesting." The team is led by Associate Professor and Lead Researcher Laura Garófalo. WAF is scheduled for November 18-20 in Fort Lauderdale.
Modular terracotta tiles pair water-attracting peaks with water-repelling channels
The system combines ceramic craftsmanship with digital fabrication and surface physics. Its design draws on leaf venation and the Namib Desert beetle. Each tile combines hydrophilic clay peaks with hydrophobic glazed channels. The project targets community water self-sufficiency in arid, fog-prone regions.