Petals: Equity and Water
Imperative: explicit – Net Positive Water; however rainfall management is an Equity consideration

Reducing Burden To Downstream Communities

People may not immediately think of rainfall management as an equity issue. However, our typical built environment treats rainfall, which can be beneficial, as stormwater that requires extensive infrastructure to manage.

The vast majority of buildings do not manage rainfall onsite. They divert rainwater into sewers, the streets, or just "away" from the site. Impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt prohibits soil from absorbing water. Therefore, "away" becomes a "not in my backyard" approach that impacts something, someone, somewhere downstream.

The rush of rainfall that has been turned into stormwater can be devastating even during normal rain events. Roads can be temporarily impassable due to localized flooding. The ground’s inability to absorb rainfall often floods downstream areas. To learn more about this impact in communities to the west of Georgia Tech, visit the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance website: http://wawa-online.org.  

The design team understood that the site’s position in the landscape came with responsibility. In other words, the fact that the site is upstream from other areas in the Peachtree Creek watershed requires Equity considerations. The design team’s decisions would impact downstream areas that are not on the site.

By following the requirements of the Living Building Challenge, The Kendeda Building dramatically mitigates these negative downstream impacts. The site mimics the hydrological flow of the area and reintroduced vegetation and biology native to the region, referencing the Piedmont Forest ecosystem. This ecosystem retains 90% of the rainfall during a normal storm event. The Kendeda Building site does the same, thereby functioning as a forest instead of a building.

Every aspect of the building is designed to slow the flow of rainfall. The solar canopy and rooftop harvest approximately 41% of site's annual rainfall and funnel it to a 50,000 gallon cistern in the basement. The building is surrounded with pervious surfaces and bioswales that allow for water to slowly seep into the ground.

If more buildings and communities followed The Kendeda Building’s lead, more rainfall would be managed on-site rather than becoming someone else’s problem. And, as The Kendeda Building has shown, managing rainfall on-site can turn stormwater, which burdens infrastructure and can negatively impact downstream communities, into an asset such as drinking water, irrigation water, or even an amenity such as public greenspace.