Mark Armfield is the owner of Armfield Design & Construction, Malibu, California.
MALIBU, California. As a boy on a bike, standing at the edge of Point Dume, gazing towards the blue horizon, Mark realized there was nowhere else to go — “This is it”. Right then he made a vow to love this land and to protect its beauty, and to one day give something back.
Fast forward a few decades and that day is now. After 25 years of working to bring environmental awareness to the construction industry, Mark takes pride in bringing to fruition only those projects that combine extreme beauty and optimum efficiency.
In the push to be environmentally responsible Mark has never forgotten about the very human need for beauty and serenity. The home as sanctuary: This is what the builder tries to create and how the family man tries to live.
Along with many environmentally advanced Malibu homes, Mark’s body of work includes:
President – Malibu Association of Contractors
Director of Malibu Chamber of Commerce
Chairman – Government Affairs / City of Malibu
Member – Malibu City Business Roundtable
Member – City of Malibu Sustainable Building Committee
As a surfer and a builder, Mark gradually became aware of our impact on the quality of the ocean. He has committed himself to learning about what hurts the ocean and what can save the ocean from further harm.
RainCatcher
Beginning at the shore, Mark eventually started looking upstream. This lead him to the sky, to RainCatcher, to Jack Rose. Mark and Jack are studying the effects of the vast runoff from rainfall, through our cities, to the ocean. Together, right here in Malibu, they are designing prototypes for residential rainwater harvesting and storm-water management. This work is their contribution to future generations of Californians.
California RainCatcher houses will collect and store tens of thousands of gallons of fresh rainwater each year during the rainy season and then use this precious resource for landscaping during the long dry season. By the middle of the century, the fulfillment of this design will cut in half the amount of water Southern California must import every year. See photos of completed
projects in the Central Coast region of California by a landscape design company called Earthcraft Landscape Design.
This is a big, slow process that will yield great dividends a half century from now for everyone in California. But many places in the world need the water from RainCatchers right now, so: In conjunction with their local projects, Mark and Jack are bringing the same rain catching technologies to places like Africa and India so that millions of people worldwide will benefit today by not having to suffer and die from water borne diseases.
From the same Point Dume office where they imagine and construct beautiful and brilliant Malibu homes, Mark and Jack create RainCatchers for schoolhouses in Africa. Current projects include two UN Farm Schools for 700 AIDS orphans in Western Kenya.
Jack Rose, founder of RainCatcher.
Jack Rose, Raincatcher: I grew up along the coast of California with a mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, in my back yard — surfing, climbing, skiing — Living in a place where every year, like clockwork, moisture would float in from the Pacific, hit the Sierra, and drop an abundance of rain and snow. These same mountains would later provide the RainCatcher model for my current work.
If I had to give myself a job description it would be: inventor/explorer/friend.
Jack Rose Design Studio — I design interesting houses in all the hideaway places up and down California. Having grown up in a dry climate, rain falling has always been alluring for me. While living on the north shore of Kauai I began catching and drinking rain. It was the best thing I had ever tasted. A couple years later, while living on the rainy Mendocino coast, I continued catching an abundance of delicious rain. So, one day, while enjoying a glass of water-from-heaven I suddenly realized that over a billion people around the world couldn’t participate in this daily ritual that I take for granted. As a designer I gave myself the challenge to come up with a simple, cheap way for all who are chronically thirsty to receive clean, safe drinking water direct from the sky. RainCatcher was born. The purpose and goal: H2O 4 Every 1.
Reversal-of-fortune
The value of rain received, rather than rejected, is immeasurable.
Architecture, up until now, is based on the premise that “Water is the enemy” — we must shed it and get rid of it as fast as possible. Residential, commercial, industrial and municipal architects and planners all adhere to this belief.
At the same time, modern culture has been relentless in promoting this attitude. Turn to the weather on radio or TV and we are constantly told: “It’s going to be a bad day”. . . because there’s a chance of rain. And if it isn’t a bad day here we are shown all the places where it is going to be ‘miserable’, because of rain — Boston, Pittsburgh, Des Moines, you name it.
Generations have been taught to fear nature, to loathe the rain, to complain each time the garden gets watered. None of this rings true. As children we loved the rain. When we weren’t inside playing board games and making forts we were outside discovering new lakes where bean fields used to be — building Tom Sawyer rafts and having big adventures.
A primary purpose of RainCatcher is to sing praise and gratitude for weather — to instigate an attitude shift from “rain is bad, let’s get rid of it” to “rain is a blessing, let’s catch it and treasure it.” When enough of us do this, countless people around the world will experience a Reversal-of-Fortune. Water is as precious a resource as oil. Instead of tossing it aside, one day we will collect it from the roofs of every home and business structure and put it to good use.
As everyone in Africa knows, “WATER IS LIFE”. . .
The purpose and goal of RainCatcher is: H2O 4 Every 1
Irena Salina’s documentary film, FLOW (For the Love Of Water), humanizes international water politics.
Water is the sleeping giant issue of the 21st Century and we all need to wake up about it. FLOW opens our eyes about the greatest threat of our time – the global water crisis. It is a compelling and passionate film. Its engaging narrative will grip the viewer. — Robert Redford
Check out the trailer and a review of the film, below.
Irena Salina’s documentary looks at all things water and the effects a dwindling supply has on health, prosperity and security.
By Kenneth Turan, Times Movie Critic
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the quietly apocalyptic “Flow” makes a good case that what’s going on with our planet’s water supply should make you very, very afraid. Any film that begins with a bleak W.H. Auden quote (“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water”) is not going to be a ray of sunshine in anyone’s life.
Made over a five-year period by director Irena Salina, who went all over the world and talked to an impressive list of experts, “Flow” (which also stands for “For Love of Water”) is a smartly done, involving look at a number of interrelated water issues.
For one thing, it seems that the planet is simply running out of water, which, given our dependence on it, is not a good thing. “We have wars going on over oil,” one of the film’s authorities says. “Water can be oil all over again.”
Also a problem is that as a society we are terminally polluting what water we have. “Flow” opens with a shot of India’s Ganges, kind of the poster image for polluted water, and it tells us that water-borne diseases kill more people annually than either AIDS or wars.
It turns out, however, that these kinds of problems are not limited to the developing world. Rocket fuel seems to have made its way into some American water systems, and herbicides such as Atrazine, banned in the European Union, are still in wide use over here.
More unexpected is “Flow’s” examination of the bitter, at times physical, conflicts that erupt when major corporations have tried to privatize water in parts of Bolivia, South Africa and other countries.
From the companies’ point of view, they are providing a service by bringing safe water to areas that don’t have it. But if the need to make a profit means that safe water will be priced above what the poorest people can afford to pay, those folks will continue to use the unsafe but free alternative. It is a dilemma we are likely to hear more about in years to come.
One of “Flow’s” most intriguing segments concerns bottled water, the alternative of choice for society’s most prosperous elements but a liquid that turns out to be less regulated and possibly less safe than what comes through the tap. In addition, we’re told, society could provide pure water for everyone on the planet for what we pay for the bottled kind. It’s something to think about, as is this entire film.
Funds for the latest RainCatcher project in Western Kenya have been raised and donated by HUB (Humanity Unites Brilliance). As a result of this action three schools with 700 AIDS orphans have received new RainCatcher systems (tanks, gutters, filters).
A U.N. agency report calls for action to save lives and energize economies by boosting supplies and sanitation.
By Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writer
November 10, 2006
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — While people in wealthy suburbs of Africa use water to maintain lush lawns and fill swimming pools, many slum dwellers struggle to obtain the crucial resource and pay much more per gallon for what little of it they can get, according to a United Nations Development Program report calling for an end to “water apartheid.”
At the same time, dirty water is the second-leading cause of death among children globally, after respiratory infections. It kills 1.8 million children younger than 5 each year, more than do HIV/AIDS, malaria, war or traffic accidents, says the U.N. report released Thursday in Cape Town.
“In the year 2015 they plan to send a spaceship to Jupiter to search for water, yet in Africa or India we can’t get water to people who need it,” Kevin Watkins, the report’s author, said at a briefing for media in Johannesburg.
The report’s main contention is that if countries increase access to clean water and sanitation simultaneously, the rates of child survival in developing countries can rocket “almost overnight,” Watkins said. Globally, 2.6 billion people have no access to proper sanitation. The 1.1 billion people who don’t have clean water use about 1.3 gallons a day.
“It is hard to find anything that has a greater impact on human life than water,” Watkins said.
In cities such as Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania, people pay more for water than do New Yorkers, Watkins said. The water and sanitation crisis in sub-Saharan Africa slowed economic growth by 5% of gross domestic product per year, more than the region receives in foreign aid, the report says. A big increase in spending on water and sanitation would pay for itself in economic growth.
“No other investment could bring greater benefits,” Watkins said.
Collecting water is a colossal waste of labor, he said, with the burden falling overwhelmingly on women and girls. Sub-Saharan African women spend about 40 billion hours a year walking and queuing to collect water.
Some countries spend much more on their military than on water.
In Pakistan, where diarrhea caused by dirty water kills 118,000 people each year, the government spends 0.1% of its budget on water and sanitation. It spends 47 times that on the military. India, where 450,000 die of diarrhea annually, spends eight times more on its military than on water resources, and Ethiopia, which has one of the highest rates of infant mortality due to lack of clean water and sanitation, spends 10 times more on the military.
Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 5 million people die annually from water-borne diseases. The Big Question: How can we help to bring safe, clean drinking water to the billions of people around the world who are chronically thirsty? In many places, once the rain hits the ground it becomes too contaminated to use. The challenge, therefore, is to catch the water before it touches the ground and store enough of it to last throughout the long dry season.
The rainwater that falls from the sky is unlimited — why should our capacity to catch, store and use it be limited? We are preparing for a second trip to Africa to catch rain. My first trip took me to South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania in April of 2004. I traveled through Africa with a group headed by Vickie Butcher, called Water for Children Africa. Starting in San Diego, California, our first stop was Johannesburg, South Africa where we spent a week visiting settlements and hospitals delivering supplies for mothers and children with HIV/Aids. Most of these sites will be receiving RainCatchers on future trips. Then we visited Kenya and Tanzania, setting up water storage tanks to provide clean drinking water for schools in the Mua Hills north of Nairobi.
Many people, back in the States and in Africa, contributed time, creativity and resources to make this work possible. Every step along the way we were received with open arms and high hopes. Securing a reliable source of clean water is the first order of business. Everywhere we went I was invited to travel out to rural schools, orphanages, farms and clinics to design RainCatchers. As I toured a wide variety of locations and situations another need became obvious: Shade! After the rain comes the hot sun, then the big RainCatcher tent becomes a giant parasol, providing shaded gathering places. In most poor areas there are no trees, no shelter from the sun. People will be able to have a clean drink of water and a little bit of shade. While in Africa I worked with suppliers to carry the necessary tanks and tents for rainwater harvesting so that from America we can raise funds and, through email, purchase more RainCatchers and have them transported to new locations. These will be set up by the truck drivers who deliver the tanks. The networks are already well established. An eager workforce awaits our green light.
The beauty, color and texture of Africa is indescribable, the people as friendly and open as I have ever met. Each country is very distinct from the others. South Africa is a perfect home base , reminds me of California, but more European. Very cosmopolitan, diverse, and hopeful in the face of extreme adversity. Remember, this ancient place is home to a ten year old democracy. The window for change is right now. Progressive ideas have a chance to bloom here. It is exciting to be a part of a story so historically rich and also open to advancement.
I wrote this story from an Internet cafe in Arusha, Tanzania, on the high plains near Kilimanjaro. After traveling to the edge of the earth I found myself in the middle of the world, meeting a novel’s worth of interesting characters from everywhere. The equatorial highlands of East Africa are tropical at 6000ft elevation, blending the best of mountains and jungle. It is truly a world crossroads, a wild west with Marco Polos and Maasai and every imaginable color and culture, all blended together.
The purpose of upcoming travel to Africa, along with actually setting up RainCatchers, is to document the installation process and display it on the Internet so people in need of safe drinking water all around the world can learn how to make their own. Built in a day, using local materials, the RainCatcher will become an immediate source of drinking water. Overnight, with the first rains, a remedy for the age old problem of inadequate and dangerous water supplies can be implemented. While it may take years and decades, if ever, for new dams and delivery infrastructure to arrive on the scene, people can begin today to develop their own pure water supply, at very little expense, with no bureaucratic or logistical road blocks.
“Thank you for the two water tanks that you gave us. Last year people were suffering from typhoid because of bad water from rivers, but now we are drinking clean water because of you …” Kamuthanga Primary School, Machakos, Kenya 11/6/03
Students taking shoebox kits and quilts to African HIV moms; also building “RainCatchers” — a pilot born from the San Diego wildfires.
“The challenges facing children in Africa are devastating,” said San Diego World Affairs Council President Vickie Butcher, executive director of Water for Children Africa. “A growing number of children there have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic or are themselves HIV positive; 30,000 die daily from lack of water and simple sanitation; and extended drought means millions more are starving.”
To help battle two major problems facing Africa — the water shortage and AIDS — Butcher is leading a team of San Diegans to Africa April 1–18. They will stay with families in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Botswana. This is Butcher’s seventh trip to provide interactions that promote cultural awareness and reduce cultural misunderstanding. “It’s important for people to experience worlds they’ve only heard about,” she said.
Team members include Encanto residents Janice Groves-Todd, Soroptimist South Bay President, and school counselor Keashonna Christopher; Rev. Alyce Smith-Cooper of Golden Hill; and University City resident Michael McCraw, President & CEO of the California Southern Small Business Loan Agency.
In addition, students will participate in the trip to help form a cultural bridge linking America’s youth with Africa’s youth, Butcher said. Students selected for the team are: Heather Elkins of La Mesa, Grossmont College Rotaract VP; Golden Hill residents Diona Johnson, Futures High School Interact President; and her brother James Cunningham, a San Diego High School freshman; La Jollan Carlos McCraw, a High Tech High School sophomore; and Kelly Ross of North Park, Grossmont College Rotaract President.
Butcher, a member of the California State Water Authority Board, also will be joined by self-described “rain farmer” Jack Rose in a first-ever RainCatcher (www.raincatcher.org) project for Africa. In an ironic twist, the team learned about the water expert while he was in Julian to help a friend rebuild following the October wildfires.
“Every eight seconds someone dies of contaminated water — that’s five million deaths a year according to the World Health Organization,” Rose said. “A recent meeting of 10 countries in Africa identified improved collection of rainwater as an important effort to ease this terrible problem.” The team will be piloting Rose’s RainCatcher invention — a harvesting structure that can be set up in a day, at minimal cost, using materials at hand. “There are many ways to catch the rain. Any existing structure or freestanding tent can be converted to become a rainwater factory, ready to provide thousands of gallons of clean drinking water,” Rose said.
With generous support from across the nation, the team also will fund water tanks for schools in the Machakos region of Kenya. Each tank ensures a safe, sustainable water supply and improve health conditions for 300-500 children.
“In South Africa, we are participating in an international AIDS effort called Hope Through Knowledge,” Butcher added. “We are taking hundreds of shoeboxes filled with important supplies for HIV positive mothers learning how to care for themselves and their children.” The shoe boxes have been assembled by local churches including Bethel AME, Cathedral of St. Paul’s, Faith Chapel Church of God and Christ, Christian Fellowship, Women of Vision Outreach Ministry and Bethel Baptist Church. Kit contents include bacterial handwash, bandaids, gauze, hospital gloves, a pain reliever, lotion, shampoo, toothpaste & brushes, handwipes, baby quilt, clothing and toy. Beautiful handmade quilts for the babies were made by the Quilt Ministry at Bethel AME Church.
Supporters of the team’s efforts include: the El Cajon Breakfast Rotary Club; Water for Children Africa, Alliance for African Assistance; Rotary Club of Machakos, Kenya; Rotary Club of Johannesburg N Central, South Africa; Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa; Rand Afrikaans University, South Africa; El Cajon Valley School District and Grossmont Community College.
Additional support is still needed and will help extend the outreach efforts of the team. Water tanks, for instance, cost $500 each; 10 kits cost $50. Tax-deductible donations are welcome to Neighborhood Fundraising Network, Inc., 5941 Cozzens, San Diego, CA 92122.
For more information, call the “It is Written Community Bookstore” at 619-286-5952.
