IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section B

Abstract

With climate change exacerbating drinking water scarcity, the current moment is an urgent one to discuss water infrastructure. In response to diminishing resources, cities in the global North continue to both expand and conceal water networks. Hydrological systems operate in subterranean territories of urban space and miss opportunities to intersect infrastructural concerns with richer architectural potential. How can we address not only infrastructure’s technical performance, but also its appearance in the city? This question forms the basis of “Drawing Divine Water”, my proposal to mine the historical, formal, functional, and atmospheric characteristics of Sardinia’s Bronze-Aged Nuragic Wells to speculate on new possibilities for our contemporary civic infrastructures. Relatively unknown in architectural history, the Nuragic Wells’ mysterious underground spaces for water-worshiping cult activities tapped into systems of springs and aquifers while providing community nodes of utility and ceremony. My presentation will illustrate how designers can learn from past vernaculars to imagine and choreograph new encounters between infrastructure, architecture, and the contemporary city. I will introduce the Nuragic Wells’ formal, functional, and atmospheric properties by presenting material collected from archeological and historical disciplines. Finally, I will show original drawings which engage tactics from the Wells to reveal, activate, and celebrate hidden flood-resilient infrastructures in select urban fabrics (like Houston’s dry retention basins and the Los Angeles River and Los Angeles’ open urban reservoirs). The drawings will endeavor to index the dislocated presence of water by enacting a hydrological spectacle in which water itself is protagonist.