YRE Competition 2016

This lift in Braga, the oldest in service in the world to use the water balance system, was inaugurated in 1882 and is a project form the Swiss engineer Niklaus Riggenbach.

It connects the upper town to the shrine, up a gap of over a hundred meters high and follows a path parallel to the of the staircase of Bom Jesus. It runs over a ramp, consisting of two independent cabins, connected together by a funicular water system balance.

Each cabin has a deposit, which is full of water at the top level and emptied when at the bottom. The weight difference thus obtained permits to travel. 38 was constructed for transporting people and does not emit CO2 to the atmosphere.

This transport process is environmentally friendly, promoting job creation, environmental protection, and light energy . That is the reason why this elevator has been around for 133 years!

Together with solar or wind power solutions, water can transport objects we can imagine in future lifts based on this process: a building, where with the help of solar and wind energy systems, water tanks would be filled, allowing people to walk up and down, without any CO2 production. It is an inexpensive and sustainable solution.

Author: Ana Daniela Silva, Bruna Silva, Inês Rodrigues

Escola Básica 2,3 de Gualtar, Portugal