Iranian architecture studio BMDesign has recently come up with an innovative solution to its home country’s water crisis. Iran?s arid desert climate means that water can be scarce at times, and with the effects of climate change becoming more evident each and every year, it’s more important than ever that sustainable forms of water and energy conservation are at the forefront of design. The consequences of these changing climatic factors can be as severe as natural water sources such as lakes and rivers drying up, which in turn can have knock-on effects on agriculture, an industry that often relies on these bodies for natural irrigation.

BMDesign has tried to tackle this issue in a way that can be implemented on many different building types, but the studio’s first concern is helping out a local school, for which they previously submitted a competition design. More specifically, they conceived of a water collection system that involves a double roof with a series of concave bowls on the top, all of which are designed to efficiently gather rainwater.
The biggest problem in Iran is that there is very little rainfall there, and therefore very little rain to collect. That means that what little rain there is needs to be collected and harvested as quickly as possible before it evaporates. Iran reportedly receives only a third of the average global rainfall, and its evaporation rates are three times higher than they are in most other places.

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