Campus CIAE
ES

The water

The water stays home

Campus CIAE recycles 100% of treated blackwater and recovers technical rejects from softener, RO and AC. Everything returns to native landscaping. No waste in a desert region.

Campus CIAE landscape detail with red blooming ocotillos

The challenge

365 mm yearly in declared water stress zone

Hermosillo receives 365 mm of annual rain, concentrated almost exclusively between July and September. It's one of northern Mexico's highest water-stress areas. The aquifer has been under extraction restriction for years.

Building a conventional building here — with decorative irrigation, no treatment, no reject recovery — would ignore the territory's reality. Campus CIAE responds with total reuse and landscaping that belongs to the desert.

The circuit

Seven stages until native landscape

  1. 01

    Inlet

    Municipal potable water from Hermosillo grid

  2. 02

    Pre-treatment

    Softener + reverse osmosis for critical areas (dining, showers, sensitive equipment)

  3. 03

    Interior use

    WaterSense high-efficiency WC, low-flow lavatories, efficient showers. >30% reduction vs baseline

  4. 04

    Greywater

    Lavatories and showers → dedicated treatment → landscape reuse

  5. 05

    Blackwater

    WC → treatment plant → NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997 compliance → landscape reuse

  6. 06

    Technical rejects

    Softener + RO + AC condensate → recovered → landscape immediate to containers

  7. 07

    Destination

    Native desert landscaping requiring minimal water once established

The treatment plant

Compact technology for on-site reuse

The Campus CIAE treatment plant is sized for the building's operational volumes. NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997 compliance for public reuse with contact.

Final technology — artificial wetland, compact MBR plant, or hybrid system — is confirmed in executive design phase. Tribo validates treated water quality in enhanced commissioning, with IAQ testing and continuous monitoring.

Passive strategy

Elevated foundations.
The soil breathes.

Campus CIAE shipping containers don't rest on a slab. Each sits on elevated concrete pad foundations — a point-support system that leaves bare soil between supports.

This allows natural stormwater infiltration to subsoil, without requiring active capture. With only 365 mm annual, a cistern doesn't pay off — rainwater would supply a week of consumption per year, while the infrastructure costs for 50. Better to recharge the aquifer.

Native landscaping

Seven Sonoran desert species

519 m² of green areas. Zero grass. Zero exotic species. Once established, requires minimal reuse water.

Ocotillo

Fouquieria splendens

Spring red flowering

Agave

multiple regional species

Extreme resilience, native biodiversity

Palo verde

Parkinsonia florida

Yellow flowering, shade and carbon

Ironwood

Olneya tesota

Endemic, longevity, wildlife habitat

Mesquite

Prosopis velutina

Key pollinator, wide canopy

Palo brea

Parkinsonia praecox

Photosynthetic green trunk

Native groundcover

mix of low-growth species

Soil coverage without irrigation

Fixtures

WaterSense or equivalent

All interior sanitary fixtures meet WaterSense or Mexican equivalent. >20% interior, >30% exterior reduction vs baseline.

Metering

BMS with leak alerts

Main meter + zone sub-meters connected to BMS. Automatic leak alerts + internal dashboard + monthly reports.

LEED v5

How this translates into LEED points

Water efficiency is where Campus CIAE most distinguishes itself: 9/9 possible points in WE category.

WEc1 Anticipated

Water Metering & Leak Detection

1 / 1 points
  • BMS with automatic leak alerts, internal dashboard
WEc2 Anticipated

Enhanced Water Efficiency

8 / 8 points
  • 100% reuse of treated blackwater for landscape irrigation
  • Recovery and reuse of technical rejects (softener, RO, AC condensate)
  • 100% native Sonoran desert landscaping without intensive irrigation

Project priority: PR2

SSc3 Anticipated

Stormwater Management

3 / 3 points
  • Elevated container foundations allow natural subsurface infiltration. LID design without active capture, optimal for 365 mm/year concentrated in Jul-Sep

Project priority: PR3

PRc1.2 Anticipated

Priority: WEc2 Water Efficiency

1 / 1 points
  • 100% reuse, reject recovery, native landscape

Project priority: PR2

Continue exploring

Water is just one axis. The site's passive hydrology and campus materials are its complement.

The site → The materials