Dive Brief:

• A system that collects rainwater and uses it for heating and cooling is at the heart of a proposal by a team of Taiwanese architects and designers for intentional housing to supplant makeshift shelters that are added to many Taiwanese apartment-building rooftops.
• Members of the group, which calls itself Unicode, say their plan draws on advanced greenhouse designs that helped turn orchid-growing into a mass-market possibility.
• The system would use solar power to heat water to circulate under floors in winter and then use an evaporative cooler in summer.

Dive Insight:

The Unicode design also uses a west wall filled with water bottles made of recycled plastic as a thermal control and an east side that opens for air circulation. Many apartment buildings already have rooftop shelters rigged up to create a little more space in dense and constrained cities.