IwamotoScott and van Bergen Kolpa are featured in the “Architecture of Consequence” exhibit currently at AIA San Francisco – an ongoing global project demonstrating the impact that designers and architects can have on sustainability.

“Hydro Net: City of the Future” – originally covered by Inhabitat in 2008 - re-imagines the San Francisco peninsula one hundred years in the future. With water resources in California already under extreme pressure, the possibility of increased climactic changes in the future sets the stage for IwamotoScott’s innovative plan. Originally created for the History Channel’s “City of the Future” contest, “Hydro Net” was the competition’s grand prize winner. The “Hydro-Net” project seeks to address the challenges of increasing population and dwindling resources by creating a new infrastructure network to distribute and create energy, water, and transportation. A comprehensive vision, the plan includes everything from hydrogen-fuel hover cars and algae producing ponds to collection and distribution mechanisms.

IwamotoScott’s concept includes sinuously twisting towers that perform a dual function: they offer high density housing while also providing space for algae aquaculture. As the economic and ecological costs of piping in San Francisco’s water and energy increase, tapping into geothermal energy and groundwater reserves will become a natural part of the “Hydro Net”.  San Francisco’s famous fog provides another potential source of water, with the architects’ “fog flowers” poised to collect condensation and funnel the precious freshwater into the city’s infrastructure.

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