The Water Gardens, located near the eastern end of the Living Village’s east-west axis, is intended to bring the village community together around water and highlight its influence on peoples’ lives. The Water Gardens will filter rainwater and wastewater through a series of constructed wetlands and rain gardens that will step down the hillside, thereby allowing gravity to move water through the system. By bringing main circulation routes through this system, as well as providing a number of seating areas and spaces to gather around the planted water features, the design will enable all people to appreciate the different filtration stages in this management system. The wetland cells will be surrounded by walls, and at the lower level, a boardwalk will allow people to move across the lowest wetland cell. With a mix of natural- seeming wetland spaces and visible, high-tech mechanical components, this space will serve as a living laboratory, inviting curiosity and educational opportunities, while providing a core gathering space for not only the Living Village residents, but the larger Divinity School and Yale communities as well.
The area includes the Water Treatment Center composed of two distinct infrastructure systems supporting water conservation and management. Rainwater will be collected and stored on-site for irrigation of gardens, groves, and orchards. Residential and community wastewater will be continually reused within the village after a rigorous treatment process, including the use of trickling filters and exterior vegetative filtering pools.
Materials include: Stone Unit Pavement (Pedestrian), Stone Walls (1.5’ high), Stone Steps, Monolithic Stone, Constructed Wetlands, and Rain Gardens and Plant Beds with Understory Trees, Shrubs and Herbaceous Groundcover, Food Crops.
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