DRY FUTURES: An Ideas Competition Seeking Future-Focused Design Responses to California's Drought

DRY FUTURES: ARCHINECT LAUNCHES COMPETITION SEEKING FUTURE-FOCUSED DESIGN RESPONSES TO CALIFORNIA’S HISTORIC DROUGHT

Premise:
Archinect is launching a new competition oriented around the unfolding drought crisis in California. We believe architects possess a remarkable set of tools and skills that uniquely establish the capacity to adapt to a problem that is both multifaceted and enormous. We are looking for the imaginative, the pragmatic, the idealist, and the dystopian.

Situation:
California – and much of the Western United States – is currently in the midst of a severe and unprecedented water crisis. And the stakes couldn’t be higher: not only is California the most populous state in country, it is by far the largest agricultural producer. According to many experts, the drought in California correlates to both unsustainable human practices and the larger product of unsustainable human activity: climate change. With current responses largely amounting to “too-little-too-late,” the clock is ticking for California.

Proposal:
While the practice of architecture may have not traditionally taken the primary role in determining how water is used, today, we no longer have a choice. Water may very well end up being the determining issue of the next century. Yet, increasingly, it feels that the discourse of the “smart city” has overtaken all considerations of the future of architecture. How will ecological crises and technological innovation cohabitate the same future?

The competition will be divided into two categories: one for speculative projects and the other for pragmatic responses:

• A. Speculative: ie. proposals that involve technologies that are not yet available and/or imagine alternative realities or futures
• B. Pragmatic: ie. proposals that exist within the realm of possibility and could be actually implemented within current economic and technological conditions

Let’s start building a different future.

Further Competition Details :