Rain Harvest Home by Robert Hutchison Architecture
Located near the town of Temascaltepec, Mexico, Rain Harvest Home (La Casa que Cosecha Lluvia) is a single-story retreat designed by Robert Hutchison Architecture in 2020.
It is part of the 450-acre development called La Reserva el Peñón, which presents a new model for how communities can coexist with nature. This home stands out as a prototype for designing regeneratively with water in a place where it has become an increasingly scarce resource. Rain Harvest Home is a humble tripartite home that integrates with the landscape and the site’s natural cycles to offer an experiential connection to place.
About Rain Harvest Home
Rain Harvest Home: An Experiential Connection to Place
Located in the mountains west of Mexico City, Rain Harvest Home (La Casa que Cosecha Lluvia) offers an experiential connection to place through its humble, tripartite design. The trio of porous wood buildings sit gently in the landscape, with bathing and study dedicated to compact structures separate from the main living pavilion. These buildings collect rainwater, connecting to a reservoir and on-site treatment and storage system that supplies 100% of the home’s water needs (36,369 liters) year-round.
A Prototype for Designing Regeneratively
Situated near the town of Temascaltepec, Rain Harvest Home is a prototype for designing regeneratively with water in a place where it has become an increasingly scarce resource. As part of a progressive 450-acre development called La Reserva el Peñón, each home is required to harvest rainwater to provide 60% of their water needs. Rain Harvest Home sought to push this agenda even further, developing a completely self-contained and self-sufficient water system.
Close Sensory and Functional Engagement with Nature
Rain Harvest Home’s dispersed program encourages a close sensory and functional engagement with the land. Walking trails between buildings double as bioswales that help channel rainwater, while the site contains a bioagriculture garden and orchard where the family harvests the majority of their food. Building on La Reserva’s goals, the home’s landscape approach is centered on regenerating the soil which had been depleted over time.
Photography courtesy of Robert Hutchison Architecture
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- by Matt Watts
