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The air is filled with many valuable resources, and many innovations are looking to harness these for good use. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted a team that’s made a massive step towards providing hydrogen fuel from the air and a solar-powered panel that captures water vapour from the atmosphere.
Robert Hutchison Architecture and Javier Sanchez Arquitectos include an extensive system for capturing and reusing stormwater for a family nature retreat in a mountainous region of Mexico.
The Rain Harvest Home, or Casa Cosecha de Lluvia, is located in the rural town of Temascaltepec, which lies about 140 kilometres west of Mexico City.
Top: The home is located in the mountains west of Mexico City. The photo is by Jamie Navarro. Above: It is one of three independent structures. The photo is by Rafael Gamo.
The retreat was designed by Seattle’s Robert Hutchison Architecture and Mexico City-based Javier Sanchez Arquitectos (JSa), which have collaborated on projects together in the past. The retreat was designed for JSa’s founder and his family, who plan to make it their permanent residence in the future.
The property consists of three independent structures – a main house, a bathhouse and an art studio.
A main house is included in the complex. Photo is by Jamie Navarro
Landscaping elements include bio-agriculture gardens, an orchard and a network of pathways.
Permaculture principles were used to “establish a holistic, integrated relationship between people and place”, the team said.
Permaculture – a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture – is an approach to design and land management that takes cues from natural ecosystems.
The bathhouse is a round building. Photo is by Rafael Gamo
One of the main goals for the project was to be mindful of resource consumption, particularly water. In turn, all of the structures are designed to capture and reuse rainwater.
The harvesting system meets 100 per cent of the home’s water needs, according to the architects.
A standalone art studio also features at the site. Photo is by Laia Rius Solá
“Here, as in the surrounding region of Central Mexico, water has become an increasingly precious resource as temperatures rise and populations increase,” the team said.
The region has a robust rainy season, but rainwater harvesting is uncommon. Instead, water tends to be pumped in from faraway watersheds.
The home features various communal areas. Photo is by César Béjar
“Rain Harvest Home takes a different tack, proposing an integrated approach to designing regeneratively with water,” the team said.
Encompassing 1,200 square feet (111 square metres), the main house was envisioned as a pavilion for year-round use and features a large amount of covered outdoor space, with views of the landscape on all sides of the building.
The residence includes an open-plan kitchen. Photo is by Rafael Gamo
The home’s communal area consists of an open living room, dining area and kitchen. The private zones hold two bedrooms, a den, a small bathroom, a powder room and a storage/laundry space.
Nearby, the team placed the bathhouse, which totals 172 square feet (16 square metres). The building is designed to offer “a poetic dialogue with the experiential qualities of water”.
Circular in plan, the bathhouse has four chambers that surround a central pool. Photo is by César Béjar
Circular in plan, the bathhouse has four chambers that surround a central cold-plunge pool that is open to the sky. The chambers contain a hot bath, sauna, steam shower and washroom.
The final structure is the 206-square-foot (19-square-metre) art studio. The rectangular building has a main level and an “outdoor skyroom”.
All three buildings have wood framing and black-stained pine cladding. Concrete-slab foundations are topped with pavers made of recinto volcanic stone. Roofs are covered with vegetation.
In the main residence, slender steel columns support deep roof overhangs. Rising up from the roof are protruding light monitors sheathed with unfinished steel plates, which will develop a patina over time.
Interior finishes include plywood made of Southern yellow pine. Photo is by Rafael Gamo
Interior finishes include recinto stone and plywood made of Southern yellow pine.
All three buildings have strategies in place to capture rainwater. Moreover, bioswales in the landscape help direct water to the property’s above- and below-ground reservoir system, where water is stored and purified.
Recinto stone was used for the flooring in some places. Photo is by Laia Rius Solá
“The on-site water treatment system is completely self-contained and primarily gravity-fed, containing five cisterns that provide potable and treated water,” the team said.
“A chemical-free, blackwater treatment system treats all wastewater on-site, returning it to the site’s water cycle as greywater for use in toilets, and to irrigate the on-site orchard,” the team added.
In addition to water conservation, the architects were also mindful of energy production. A 10-kW photovoltaic array generates electricity for all three buildings.
Overall, the home is meant to be a model for how to integrate water conservation into home design.
The home is meant to be a model for how to integrate water conservation into home design. Photo is by Laia Rius Solá
“It stands as a testament to the potential of rainwater harvesting for off-grid, self-contained water systems that eliminate reliance on municipal water sources,” the team said.
“At the same time, the element of water contributes to the overall spatial and experiential quality of the project, reconnecting people with their environment by engaging the senses.”
Other rural homes in Mexico include a house with a cruciform-shaped plan and hefty stone walls by HW Studio Arquitectos, and a brutalist-style, concrete house in a pine forest that was designed by architect Ludwig Godefroy.
Architects: Robert Hutchison Architecture and JSa Project team: Robert Hutchison, Javier Sanchez, Sean Morgan, Berenice Solis Structural engineer: Bykonen Carter Quinn Mechanical engineer: TAF Alejandro Filloy General contractor: Mic Mac Estructuras Landscape architect: Helene Carlo Wood construction and fabrication: MicMac Estructuras (Johan Guerrero) Steel construction and fabrication: Rhometal Roberto Chavez Water systems consultant: Miguel Nieto Solar systems consultant: Teoatonalli (Oscar Matus) Kitchen consultant: Piacere Charly Trujillo
Rain Harvest Home – is located within Reserva el Peñón, a landscape-driven development which has achieved water self-sufficiency for a community of 80 families in 450 acres of a nature reserve, two hours from Mexico City. The Reserve framed our thinking around sustainability generally, and rainwater harvesting specifically. It pushed us to think at a larger level where the whole Reserve became the site, and the home was one piece of that. We also thought about how we could explore the larger issues of water conservation in Mexico, with this being an example of how to harvest rainwater on a small scale that could then apply to other projects. That became a driver in a powerful way. It was an idea that evolved over the course of the design process, and as the client became increasingly interested in cultivating a healthy, holistic lifestyle where they could live in harmony with the land.
Architizer chatted with Robert Hutchison from Robert Hutchison Architecture, and Javier Sanchez from JSa Arquitectura, to learn more about this project.
Architizer: What inspired the initial concept for your design?
Robert Hutchison & Javier Sanchez: The brief was simple: the clients wanted a small cabin to enjoy the mountainous site. Valle de Bravo has a dry season and a rainy season, and the sun plays a trick every day in both of those seasons. You can enjoy the sun, but you have to be careful with it. Here, you need to have spaces that are open and covered; enclosed and covered; and outside and uncovered. You need all three qualities, so we needed to make that happen within the three structures.
At the start, the project had a simple, classic program: 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. When we were on site, we started developing the idea of splitting up the program into separate buildings. It started with wanting to separate the function of bathing, which led to the idea of the bathhouse. And then the separate studio emerged from that.
This project won in the 10th Annual A+Awards! What do you believe are the standout components that made your project win?
Rain Harvest Home offers a model for designing regeneratively with water. The home is 100% water autonomous and, in times of surplus, it is water positive and feeds excess water back into the community’s larger reservoir system. Not only does the design help restore the microclimate of the site, but it stands as a testament to the potential of rainwater harvesting for off-grid, self-contained water systems that eliminate reliance on municipal water sources. At the same time, the element of water contributes to the overall spatial and experiential quality of the project, reconnecting people with their environment by engaging the senses. More than any other element, conserving and improving the quality of water as a precious resource has the potential to dramatically improve the health and sustainability of built environments in Mexico, and beyond.
What was the greatest design challenge you faced during the project, and how did you navigate it?
Integrating the rainwater system was an initial design challenge, and continues to be an everyday challenge. Now, the rain harvesting system and on-site reservoir are a learning laboratory where the clients are continually learning about how the system performs. Understanding that the water and food systems on site are part of a living process that fluctuates depending on changing natural conditions, the client continues to experiment in ways to optimize the system through seasonal calibrations and refinements. Nothing is as objective as science would make it seem because things are always changing over time depending on how much it rains, and when. The house has to live with that, and it’s a constant learning experience for us as designers. It’s about integrating design into the cycle of water and of life.
How did the context of your project — environmental, social or cultural — influence your design?
The site is relatively flat, but sits within a mountainous environment. All around are cliffs and steep slopes, but our site rests in a small plateau vegetated with continuous, single-story-high shrubs and brush. Because of these site conditions, we wanted to make the buildings disappear within the vegetation. This is why we designed a series of three low pavilions that nestle into the landscape and are dispersed across the site. We wanted a strong connection between each building and the landscape. Often as architects, we think about how spaces are created between buildings, but this was about letting the landscape be that interstitial space. The landscape becomes the connection between the buildings, just as it delineates the spaces between them. When you move through the site, there’s an experience of the buildings constantly disappearing and reappearing. It’s a process of discovery.
How important was sustainability as a design criteria as you worked on this project?
Within La Reserva, each home is required to incorporate rain harvesting, with most of it coming from the individual home’s rainwater harvesting system and a small portion coming from the reserve’s reservoirs. We wanted to try and raise the bar and see if we could harvest 100% of our water from our individual site, rather than depend on external sources. This was important because there is a major water shortage in Mexico City, which is absurd because it rains a lot, but we don’t harvest that rainwater. Instead, we pump water in and out from the valley. As designers, we need to talk about those issues within our designs and experiment with new possibilities. Sometimes when you have a built example, it’s easier to understand new possibilities, particularly around rainwater harvesting.
