Toward Regenerative Design: From Water Scarcity to Water Harvesting in Mexico

Alberto Kritzler ‘23

The weather worldwide is becoming more extreme. The last decade has brought extremely dry seasons, highlighting the vulnerability of agriculture, water supplies, and urban areas to drought, giving the topic of water a new urgency.

A look at Mexico, with its unique climate divided into distinct rainy and dry seasons, and a complex urban-rural dynamic and intricate political and social interdependencies, provides valuable insights into potential approaches for adaptation and coping strategies.

Reserva el Peñón is a pioneer of resilient design in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, and offers insights and innovative approaches to tackle water-related challenges. The project is situated within a natural protected area, approximately 100 miles from Mexico City, and should be understood within the context of the megacity - the regional basin collects water which is pumped for its 22 million inhabitants through.

Spanning 450 acres, the project is a community situated on a slope within a pine-oak and rainforest, featuring two towering volcanic rocks. The site was formerly used as pasture land, for “milpa” agriculture—a traditional system in which maize is intercropped with other species, such as beans, squashes or potatoes, that has been a sustainable method of growing crops for millennia—and for the extraction of firewood. The region faces various pressures over decades, including mining, irregular settlements, and illegal logging. Its natural beauty makes it attractive to real estate developers, and the site’s owners had plans for a resort with a golf course and five hundred country homes.

Recognizing the danger that traditional development posed to this rain forest, some of us collaborated on creating an alternative. Could a sustainable, collective-community design be both feasible and attractive to investors?

Two sources of inspiration were crucial. An initial site analysis revealed the lack of access to water and an existing damaged condition of this “pristine” territory. One was permaculture´s key-line design, and second was Bill Reed’s ideas from his article "Shifting from 'sustainability' to regeneration"* (2007).

“Sustainability” he argues, is about doing less damage to the environment, and “it is necessary to learn how one can participate with the environment by using the health of ecological systems as a basis for design. The role of designers and stakeholders is to create a whole system of mutually beneficial relationships (…) By doing so, the potential for green design moves beyond sustaining the environment to one that can regenerate its health”. Could a development even aspire to be regenerative?

The resulting project is a water-autonomous country house settlement that addresses the community's water needs without relying on external freshwater sources or wastewater connections.

The planning and design are based on the “Key-line” technology for pasture farming, developed by P.A. Yeomans in Australia in the 1950s. The aim is increasing resistance to dryness, erosion, and flooding, as well as storing rainwater and improving soil fertility.

In the key-line design, the climate specifies the rules of the game, the topography, with the associated natural behavior of water, is the “game board”. The systematic structure builds on the durability of the planning elements. Climate, terrain and geology, which can only be influenced to a small extent by human influence, are followed by hydrology, access routes, parceling, soil formation, flora and fauna. In doing so, it reverses the approach that is usually used in urban planning.**

Water management is guided by the principle of "slow it down, spread it out, and sink it in”. A system of fifteen interconnected small dams runs through the site. A network of six miles of hedges separate eighty private plots. Roads and paths follow contour lines and are lined with native trees, shrubs and plants which create protection, habitat, and produce food for local fauna. With minimal maintenance and no irrigation, the landscape delivers medicinal teas, berries, fruits and firewood. The soil is slowly regenerated, enriched with water to promote water-storing vegetation.

Through a decentralized network of reservoirs along the keylines, the site is divided into multiple water catchment areas. Gravity ensures that higher elevation reservoirs supply approximately 35% of household water needs. The reservoirs also serve to regulate the microclimate and provide habitats for both local and migratory bird species. Rainwater collected from rooftops and stored in cisterns by each household covers the remaining 65%.

Beyond the technical aspects, Bill Reed's concept of "the story of place" is vital. By connecting the dots through a narrative, individuals understand their role in nature and their agency in preserving it.

Through a governance structure focused on learning, the community engages in workshops that foster emotional connections and facilitate learning from nature. Over 30 workshops were held last year, ranging from woodwork workshops, to mushroom foraging, to local fauna identification. This approach instills a deep sense of caring, appreciation, and connectedness. Kids in particular are transformed by these experiences.

Reed explains:

“This way of working can deliver not only more holistic and effective projects, but also a higher level of satisfaction. We experience ourselves as part of a larger whole and adjust our needs, aspirations and values. We are increasingly able to play a meaningful role, one that evolves us at the same time that it evolves the living communities we are an integral part of. Inevitably this results in a deep sense of caring, appreciation, connectedness for all who choose to engage in a regenerative level of work.”

Innovative design remains crucial as we address the impacts of climate change in local weather, ecosystem health, and water supplies. The urgency surrounding water-related challenges is increasingly felt worldwide. Conserving and improving water quality has the potential to significantly enhance the health and sustainability of built environments in Mexico and beyond.