Architects are getting better at rainwater collection, but this house on a drought-stricken Washington ranch has been designed by Peter Macapia, the principal of Brooklyn-based Design Office for Research and Architecture (DORA), to be a water collection machine.

There is a lot of snow in winter but long, hot and dry summers, so the house is built into the side of the hill, with a system of rock and aggregate filled watercourses that end up on the roof, which acts as a catchment system and filter before the water is stored in tanks beneath the house. The tanks act as storage, and as an evaporative cooling system in summer.

::Ranch House, one of a series of unbuilt houses online at ::Architectural Record. The Record Houses, including the ::Loblolly House and ::Christ Church Tower are now available online as well.

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