20080304

San Francisco Hydro-Net

Come 2108, the built typology of San Francisco is barely recognizable. The edge of the bay has been transformed into a series of algae ponds producing hydrogen for clean fuel cell locomotion. A network of interlinked subterranean infrastructural pathways transport people, hydrogen, water and staples while freeing the surface for pedestrian comfort and disinvestment in the internal combustion engine.

Fog is harvested for drinking water and streets become permeable rainwater collectors, while natural aquifers are used as water storage tanks. The complex plate tectonic machinations underpinning the City are tapped to supply clean geothermal energy, and the Pacific ocean is utilized as the largest thermal mass on the planet.

IwamotoSctott's winning design for the history.com City of the Future contest is full of radically captivating options for the future of the City...read up! [additional eyecandy here]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear that San Francisco fog is becoming extinct as a result of global warming. We'll have to rely on other sources.

JSA / V.Blue said...

I've heard that, but I've also heard (from a local antimodern architect, big on passive cooling, whom I greatly respect) that the opposite is true, that rising surface temperatures further out in the Pacific will cause a larger delta between air and water temp at the continental shelf upwelling, actually causing MORE fog on the Californian coast. Here's some material on the meteorology of local fogs if you don't know what I'm talking about.