In Mexico, a house that returns to the well

Years of abnormally low rainfall, higher-than-normal temperatures and aging infrastructure have led to a dangerously low water supply for Mexico City. The issue isn't a new one for the Mexican capital - in 2014, it was ranked as the third most water-stressed of more than 150 of the planet's largest cities. Now, the metropolis faces a water crisis so severe that local authorities recently began imposing rations.

For Javier Sánchez, a low-slung earthen house just west of Mexico City, designed by his architectural firm JSa, reflects an obvious way out of the predicament.

"This house is a laboratory because it allows people to visualize the possibility of going back to certain solutions that were implemented many years before us," he said on a recent video call. "There was an ancient technology around water, but it was easier to put everything in pipes and forget about it...