Reimagine where campus water comes from
Bee_Hydrated is an immersive campus water experience built around four goals: eliminate plastic, educate, reduce reliance on city water, and reduce stress on campus. It was designed to International Living Future Institute principles and submitted for the Living Future Award.
Product design
The dispenser and filtration hardware students actually touch.
Service design
The journey, incentives, and habit loop around the water.
Architecture
The space itself — built to the highest sustainability bar.
Centerimages/bee-01.jpg
approach (Venn)images/bee-02.jpg
Go see what people actually do
Cheapest, always
Students pick the cheapest bottled water, regardless of promotions.
Forgotten bottles
When water costs the same as soda, they forget the bottle and switch drinks.
Unused stations
Fountains hidden and poorly maintained — the refill stations went unused the entire study.
Test whether anyone can even tell the difference
Students don't drink the cleaner water. They drink the water they trust.
Perception drives the choice, not chemistry — so any reusable solution had to make filtration something you can see.
in progressimages/bee-04.jpg
gridimages/bee-05.jpg
Stop trying to convert everyone the same way
I synthesized the research into three personas and plotted each on B.J. Fogg's behavior model — B=MAT: Behavior = Motivation × Ability × Trigger — to design targeted interventions rather than force universal change.
Proactive
Already owns and uses a reusable bottle. Habit's there — just make it better.
Reactant
Curious and inconsistent. Open to trying, if the experience earns it.
Non-Reactant
Opts out over health and cleanliness perceptions — not spite.
A behavior-comparison then mapped the new behavior against its competitors — buying, being given a bottle, identity, and simply forgetting your own — to see exactly what each persona had to gain and to overcome.
motivation × abilityimages/bee-06.jpg
(benefits vs. barriers)images/bee-07.jpg
Make the sustainable choice the most appealing one
Bee_Hydrated lives in SCAD's Gulfstream Center — turning a utility into an oasis worth seeking out.
Visible filtration
A transparent six-nozzle station shows the water being cleaned — trust you can watch.
Gamified dispenser
Borrow a reusable bottle with a student ID; get your deposit back on return.
Sensory oasis
Living wall, bamboo screening, and water features make it a place to escape to.
See the payoff
Educational panels and an automatic savings display make the benefit tangible.
the oasisimages/bee-08.jpg
Hold it to the highest sustainability bar
The whole space is designed to Living Building Challenge criteria — across place, water, energy, health, materials, and equity.
Rainwater is harvested from the roof, circulated through filtration and the living wall, and returned — with reclaimed, recyclable, local materials throughout.
Gulfstreamimages/bee-10.jpg
diagramimages/bee-11.jpg
Design a different path in for each mindset
Each persona meets a tailored trigger: Proactives get reinforcement and a backup bottle when they forget; Reactants are pulled in by novelty and visible water quality; Non-Reactants meet gentle pressure through the prominent location and education aimed at their health doubts.
The space works as a behavioral funnel — sensory cues, instant monetary feedback, and the physical sight of water flowing during a bottle return — split across two modes: Steer (sensory and educational nudges) and Force (the physical space plus student-ID access).
