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The shelter that can end the water shortage of the State of Mexico by harvesting rain

2021-09-23T21:52:11.930Z


The architect Javier Sánchez designed his home in Valle de México with a system that collects, filters and stores all the water that is needed throughout the year. The idea is to build 80 more to recover an ecosystem depleted by years of agriculture and livestock


The water has started to fall after three in the afternoon and hits the ground hard. The architect Javier Sánchez (Mexico City, 51 years old) has taken refuge inside his house, where he has received his work team. To the east, you should see Nevado de Toluca, the fourth highest volcano in Mexico, but the clouds cover everything. It is the rainy season in this part of the hemisphere. Sánchez has designed this house in the mountains to take advantage of the water that falls naturally in an area that suffers from a chronic shortage of supplies. Rainfall is recovered thanks to a system that collects, filters and stores. The water they drink, the water that comes out of the taps, the water in the bathrooms is what the house itself has harvested.

The house is part of a 200 hectare real estate development where 80 houses will be built.

To get from the access of the complex to Sánchez's house, you have to climb about 250 meters through dirt roads.

In the surroundings you can see pastures, pines, oaks and fruit trees.

And although recognized actors and chefs have their chalets there, they are hardly seen.

Half of the territory has been converted into a nature reserve and the rest can only be built 6% and up to five and a half meters high.

The falling water is directed through channels to a 500 square meter pool.Alejandra Rajal

The complex, located in the Valley of Mexico basin, almost three hours from the capital, aims to recover an ecosystem depleted by years of agriculture and livestock. It has about 13 reservoirs that collect rain and provide 30% of the water used by each of the houses. But Sánchez has designed his to capture all he needs.

Made of black-painted wood and a volcanic stone called an enclosure, the house is reminiscent of Mies van der Rohe's pavilion: a raised horizontal plane below which the rest seem to float. The windows can be opened until they disappear and configure different spaces. The project, inaugurated in 2020, was designed by Sánchez in collaboration with the American architect Robert Hutchison. The house pretends to be a refuge, a cabin in the mountains, for Sánchez, his wife and their two daughters, 24 and 21 years old. It also has an independent study to receive visits or work and a space dedicated to water, such as a "temple" with hot springs, sauna and steam.

Inside the main building there is a large kitchen, a small living room with a library, a dining room, two bedrooms, a TV room and a bathroom. Outside, there is an orchard that at this time gives potatoes, lettuce, aromatic herbs and different fruits. And there are, also, two terraces. Although it is cold, the house invites you to be outside. The terrace through which the house is accessed is organized around a fireplace. The other has a table that can accommodate up to 20 people.

From there you can see a small artificial lake that stores up to a million liters of water.

With the first rains of the season, the water begins to run and can be captured.

Two main channels conduct rainfall below ground to the pool, where it is stored.

The ring around this pot is a kind of wetland that helps sediment the soil that brings the water and does a pre-cleaning job.

It requires practically no maintenance.

A part of that water is used for consumption and another important part evaporates.

"A beautiful principle of water is that the more water there is, the more humidity there is and the more rain there is," says the architect.

In dry season the level can drop by 30%.

The water storage and treatment system is underground.

Alejandra Rajal

A few meters away there is a hidden underground machine room that receives water directly from the rain and stores it in three tanks. It is then made drinkable and stored in two other containers. From there it goes to the house and, after being used - without chemicals, such as bleach - returns: it passes through a treatment plant, is filtered, cleaned, the bad smell and a little color are removed, and reuse in bathrooms and for irrigation. That is, for the system to work, the house has to be inhabited.

Sánchez, who is also a teacher as an architect, designed the project to be didactic. The house, he says, "is a laboratory and a school." For him, small projects, "almost like acupuncture", can solve the problems of water shortages in Mexico City and other municipalities. The Cutzamala system, which provides water to the capital, has suffered from overexploitation of a city that continues to expand. In April, the city's head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced that she planned to build a new water treatment plant to supply the capital from other nearby water sources. At that time, the water only filled 42.9% of the capacity of the set of dams, 23 points less than in the same month of the previous year.

This house has been a turning point in Sánchez's career, who until now had done, above all, urban projects - he received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for a social housing project.

That turn began about five years ago, in part inspired by his daughters, who are activists "against everything that is wrong," says the architect.

The whole family went vegan.

He started running - he completed the Rome marathon wearing sandals like the ones the Tarahumara people wear, albeit designed by an American brand called Luna Sandals - and lost 30 kilos.

"I still believe in the city, of course, but I think it has to be built with another logic," he points out and points out that such a system can be replicated in cities.

View of the access to the house.Alejandra Rajal

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-09-23

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