Sweden just turned the humble water tower into art

The country is swapping out aging water infrastructure with towers that look like sculptures.

The Swedish city of Varberg found out the hard way that it needed a new water tower. The local water system sprang a leak, and the city had to tap into its backup water supply, about 525,000 gallons stored in a utilitarian UFO-shaped concrete water tower near the center of town. But the volume of water inside that tower, built in the 1960s, was not enough to meet the demands of a city that has seen its population nearly triple to 35,000 over the past 60 years. The water company eventually fixed its leak, and taps started flowing again, but the city knew it needed a better vessel for water security.