The Faults of Conventional Hydrology
Modern cities treat water as a waste product to be removed as quickly as possible via impervious surfaces and underground pipes. This leads to flooding, pollution, and aquifer depletion. The Institute teaches a fundamental reorientation, inspired by the hydrological intelligence of forests and wetlands. These ecosystems do not evacuate water; they welcome it, slow it down, filter it through multiple layers, store it, and release it slowly. Our design philosophy applies this 'slow water' principle at every scale, from the roof to the watershed.
Building as a Catchment and Purification Organism
We design buildings to function like trees in a forest. Roofs are conceived as multi-layered canopies. The primary surface is designed to channel rainwater not just into downspouts, but into 'branch-like' scuppers that distribute it to vertical 'trunk' columns. These columns are not mere pipes; they are active bioremediation systems filled with layers of sand, charcoal, and rhizomes of water-purifying plants like cattails and reeds, mimicking the root filtration of a wetland. Greywater from sinks and showers is similarly directed into these living walls or into constructed wetland cells in basements or courtyards.
Creating Urban Watersheds
Beyond the building footprint, our projects aim to restore the urban hydrologic cycle. Parking lots and plazas use permeable paving over a gravel reservoir layer, exactly like a forest floor over soil. Swales and bioswales (landscape elements shaped to concentrate and infiltrate runoff) replace curbs and gutters, planted with native, deep-rooted species that break up compacted soil and enhance infiltration. The goal is to achieve 'net-zero water impact,' where the volume and quality of water leaving a site after development matches or improves upon the pre-development condition.
Students work on real projects designing 'sponge city' infrastructures, where every surface is an opportunity for absorption and cleansing. They calculate catchment areas, model flow paths, and specify plant communities for phytoremediation. This holistic approach transforms buildings from water consumers and polluters into productive nodes within a resilient, living water network. It is a critical strategy for climate adaptation, reducing flood risk, recharging groundwater, and creating verdant, cooling urban oases.