Project achievements:

1. Reduced Carbon Footprint Through Passive Cooling
   The project employs a sustainable double-layered roof system to significantly reduce energy consumption for cooling. The upper “dish” layer shades the main roof beneath, preventing direct sunlight while allowing airflow between the layers—naturally ventilating the structure during hot summers.

2. Raising Awareness on Water Scarcity and Climate Change
   By visibly integrating rain and dew harvesting technologies into the architecture, the project highlights urgent global issues such as water shortage and global warming, sparking conversations and awareness through design.

3. Nesting Bowls: Maximizing Dew Harvesting Efficiency
   The concave, bowl-shaped roof design expands the dew collection surface by nearly six times compared to a conventional flat roof, greatly enhancing atmospheric water capture in dry, humid zones.

4. Creating a Strong Urban Identity
   The bowl-shaped roofs are designed to be modular and repeatable across rooftops, offering not only environmental benefits but also contributing to a coherent and memorable urban character—a visual identity rooted in both function and form.

5. Rainwater Harvesting Potential
   With an estimated annual rainfall of 193mm and an efficiency rate of 60% (based on Brad Lancaster’s dryland RWH models), one concave roof system measuring 923 m² can collect approximately 106 cubic meters of clean rainwater annually.

   Formula Used:

Rain Harvest (m³) = Catchment Area (m²) × Rainfall Depth (m) × Efficiency

923 × 0.193 × 0.60 ≈ 106 m³ Rain Harvest

1. Sunken Courtyard Architecture
   Classrooms, offices, and libraries are organized around traditional sunken courtyards, inspired by desert cities such as Yazd and Nain. This approach traps cooler night air, reducing daytime cooling needs. Recessed openings further control solar gain, enhancing indoor thermal comfort.

2. Integration of Date Palms
   Strategically planted date palms provide seasonal shade to the concave roofs, support passive cooling, enhance spatial enclosure, and supply fruit—demonstrating the fusion of ecological performance with cultural context.

1. Concave Roofs / Rain-Harvesting Bowls

Rain Harvesting & Shading
Rain falls at speeds up to 10 meters per second. In heavy rains, droplets quickly combine to form flowing streams on surfaces. However, in light rainfall, these droplets often evaporate before they can accumulate. By employing steep, concave bowl-shaped roofs, we enhance the movement and collection of even the smallest droplets—guiding them to integrate and flow toward collection points.

These large outer bowls not only facilitate water harvesting but also provide essential shade for the roof below. This double-layered system allows for natural ventilation, cooling both the concave shell and the main roof, significantly reducing indoor temperatures in hot climates.

Dew Harvesting
Inspired by the Fog-Basking Beetle of the Namib Desert—an insect that collects water by condensing fog on its smooth back—our concave roof surfaces act in a similar way. The bowls’ smooth, cool surfaces encourage dew condensation, and their geometry directs the moisture down to be collected efficiently. This allows the building to passively harvest atmospheric moisture, even in arid conditions.

2. Sunken Courtyard Buildings

Passive Cooling & Radiant Night Cooling
Traditional desert architecture has long embraced courtyard buildings for their natural ability to retain cooler air. In our design, we take this a step further by employing sunken courtyards that sit below ground level, where the air is cooler and more stable. These enclosed spaces trap cold air at night, reducing ambient temperature for the entire building during the day.

Additionally, the open exposure of the roof to the cold night sky enables radiant cooling—further lowering the temperature of the concave roofs and accelerating dew formation during the early morning hours.