Pexels contributor
05 / Adaptation
Rooms for rain
Turning courtyards, canals, and roofs into an urban sponge.
The central idea
Rain needs a room
Water always finds a route. The question is whether the city provides a safe place to hold, filter, use, and return it.
Mohamed B. / Pexels
Roofs and canal edges become part of a distributed retention system. — Mohamed B. / Pexels · Mohamed B. / Pexels
The fastest drain is not always the best answer; sometimes a city needs to learn how to hold.
Numbers to begin with
From roof to ground
10 mm
of first rainfall held close to its source
4 steps
hold, filter, use, and then release
1 block
a practical scale for a first prototype
Field lens
Roofs and canal edges become part of a distributed retention system.
01
Hold rain close to where it lands.
02
Filter it through planting and soil.
03
Reuse it before releasing it.