Habitecture features support the revival of desert scrub species within a human- dominated context. Here, using echolocation, bats return after a night of foraging to roost in bat boxes under a cholla trellis. Their guano stains the concrete arches. Some bats still swoop above the roof garden and its buffet of agave nectars while native bees rest in bee boxes embedded in soil on the roof. Nearby, pollinator insects swarm around their nests within the hollow clay brick habitat wall. Following the practice of urban acupuncture, urban multispecies condensers are strategically inserted into existing lots. To respect existing patterns of development, buildings can line the sidewalk or are set back with a front yard. The back yard becomes a shared alley city-community farm and safe play space to expand economic and social infrastructures. A sun protection layer wraps the building; bookended hollow clay brick habitat walls shade the road and alley sidewalks while supporting a lightweight wood lattice structure that shades the soil on the roof. A flexible system of cholla skeleton pieces is added seasonally over places that require additional shade and on doorway gates. This building layer also provides security and privacy within the urban context. As in the previous two designs, high-tensile concrete arches form a water protection layer. The roof slopes toward the street; rainwater is captured and transported by gutter and pipe to a pumice wick in the alley. The high side of the roof curves down to an arcade of bat guano flush storage columns: wastewater from the columns is combined with street stormwater runoff, treated and stored in the alley pumice wick before being used as irrigation and fertiliser for corn and other more water- and fertiliser-intensive vegetables. Continuous thermal insulation forms a thermal envelope: an earthen floor, adobe walls and a planted soil roof. Large earth-filled columns help buffer indoor temperatures; they also provide much deeper soil than a typical green roof and structurally support the added roof weight. A wind scoop on the roof brings in fresh air (cleaned somewhat by roof plants) and exhausts hot air.
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on site review 41 :: infrastructure
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