What is Water-Centric Design? Building with Water in Mind

It is an approach that meticulously plans the design, construction, and long-term operation of buildings and their surrounding sites to minimize any adverse impacts on water resources, proactively conserve water, and actively strive to enhance water quality and overall hydrological resilience. This philosophy advocates for buildings to become dynamic and positive contributors to both local and regional water cycles, rather than passive consumers or sources of degradation.

The core pillars of Water-Centric Design are: 

1. Making Space for Water
2. Retaining Water
3. Harvesting Water
   

Making Space for Water:

“Sponge City” Idea: Urban areas designed to absorb, retain, and purify water using green infrastructure, treating rainwater as a resource. Strategies include creating “sponge spaces” that can safely flood, designing for variability in water levels, retaining water on-site, and maximizing permeable surfaces.  

Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI): A network of natural and engineered features (ponds, streams, green spaces) that mimic pre-development ecosystems, offering water management, recreation, and habitat benefits. Water-sensitive landscaping (e.g., xeriscaping) uses climate-appropriate plants to minimize irrigation.  

Interconnected & Aesthetic: These three pillars work best together. Harvesting reduces the load on retention systems, and making space for water supports both. Modern design increasingly celebrates water features, making them aesthetic and functional. Solutions must be tailored to local climate, geology, and project scale.  

Holding Water, Building Resilience (On-Site Retention):

Temporarily storing stormwater on-site to “slow, spread, sink” it into the ground, mimicking natural processes. This recharges groundwater and reduces runoff.  

Key Technologies:

Green Roofs: Vegetated roofs that absorb and slowly release rainwater, also offering insulation and biodiversity benefits. Can retain up to 75% of rainfall.  

Permeable Pavements: Surfaces (porous concrete, pavers) that allow water to soak through to an underlying storage layer, reducing runoff and recharging groundwater. Can infiltrate 70-80% of annual rainfall.  

Bioswales/Rain Gardens: Landscaped channels or depressions that capture, filter, and infiltrate stormwater, improving water quality.  

Underground Storage: Tanks or modular systems for large-volume storage where surface space is limited.  

Harvesting Every Drop (Rainwater Harvesting – RWH):

Collecting and storing rainwater, typically from rooftops, for uses like irrigation, toilet flushing, or even drinking water (with proper treatment). Benefits: Reduces demand on municipal supplies (by up to 55% in commercial, 30% in residential buildings), provides free water, lessens stormwater runoff, and offers softer, chemical-free water for plants.

Catching Every Drop: Smart Ways to Harvest Rain

Harnessing rainfall is key to water-friendly living. Rooftops are great for collecting rainwater – your personal water source. Systems use gutters and pipes to direct water, often through a filter, into a storage unit. Methods range from simple to more complex systems:

• Rain Barrels: Simple tanks (50-100 gallons) typically placed at downspouts, perfect for garden water.
• “Dry” Systems: For larger storage, these systems use pipes that drain completely to a tank after rain, ideal for areas with big storms.
• “Wet” Systems: These use underground pipes connecting multiple downspouts before leading to the storage tank.

Design considerations include roof material, tank size, and water quality needs. Imagine watering your garden with pure, collected rainwater – it’s a rewarding way to live more sustainably.

Creating communities that live in synergistic harmony with water is a central goal of Water-Centric Design. This approach fundamentally shifts how we interact with water, moving beyond traditional management to see rainfall and other water flows as a precious resource rather than just something to drain away. By adopting strategies like collecting rainwater from our roofs, letting landscapes soak up moisture through methods like rain gardens, and designing our spaces to work with natural water flows, we transform our buildings and surroundings.