Designed by Matsys Designs, Sietch Nevada is a response to the idea of a water-poor world becoming a reality, especially in the American Southwest. With so much of the press focused on wars over oil, the world is often unaware of the slowly depleting water sources, which are indeed exponentially more valuable than oil. This futuristic urban prototype addresses the water situation as a complex underground network of tunnels and canals offers protection and the “storage, use, and collection of water essential to the form and performance of urban life.”
More about Sietch Nevada after the break.
The scheme makes the existing underground water banks in the area become more than just back up tanks for droughts. In fact, the Sietch Nevada turns these water banks into the building blocks of their new city idea. A dense underground community forms around canals which connect the city with vast aquifers, provide transportation, and agricultural irrigation. The cellular form of these caverns “constitute a new neighborhood typology that mediates between the subterranean urban network and the surface level activities of water harvesting, energy generation, and urban agriculture and aquaculture.”
Some may quickly dismiss the current water situation, yet water will inevitably be the next thing countries will wage wars over. And, as water is necessary for us to survive as a species, we must address the issue and find potential solutions before the problem becomes a major crisis.
Year: 2009
Location: 37°46′20.10″N, 117°31′57.38″W
Exhibition: Out of Water | innovative technologies in arid climates at the University of Toronto
Credit: Andrew Kudless (Design), Nenad Katic (Visualization), Tan Nguyen, Pia-Jacqlyn Malinis, Jafe Meltesen-Lee, Ben (Model)
wow very ambitious project and from the of it, very large scale
Very interesting proposal, it makes you think about what our future may hold. I was wondering what the proposed construction materials are? If there is no water, It would be very hard to elaborate traditional materials.
ace comment.
good catch buddy….;)
who else read “john difool and the incal”? the similarities to its dystopian honeycomb/anthife city are scary =)
great idea though!
I believe that was the inspiration or the project. Not a coincidence.
Wow interesting. What everyone can do with PC …
Genialne!
Frank Herbert’s Dune? ;)
Also reminded me of the Dune saga! Very intresting concept – though the viuals looks rather apocaliptic. make it nice…
no it does not!
very nice concept…reminds me of the spreading of cells …
very interesting …it might be the future…not necessarily on earth
The aquifers under Utah and Nevada are ancient seabeds with extremely high content of salt. Currently, farms are pumping up the fresh aquifers and slowly increasing the salt content by drawing the mineral out from the rocks below. At the same time the water usage steadily lowers the water level (and the little Venice-like rendering will be as false as the one in Vegas).
While a neat idea, I would have liked to see a hydrologist on the team…I suppose anything can be ‘solved’ with a desalination plant. But without it, this is indeed just SyFy…or maybe Architectural Fiction.
Gentlemen,
architecture is 100% fiction, without great dreamers, probably we would still be designing w/ greek and roman orders. (although some of us still are…)
This is a great dream, one thing that makes me wonder is the type of society enjoying such a places. The main perspective is very attractive and contradictory at the same time. Space and time, remember?, In a future like that people would be using fibers uva & uvb for skin protection, people would have to be different, this is not a contemporary reality, it is a futuristic context. We might have to dig ourselves in? how is transportation between modules going to be? Venetia type of transportation, way too romantic!
Very romantic, the people in the perspective is enjoying the place just like an amusement park…I do not think so!!! Next time, give us the full picture….
i like it better then any “mars colony” concept i saw..
u could “mine” that water from soil… create that underground lakes and canals…
The word sietch is actually a direct reference to the underground colonies in Frank Herbert’s Dune books. Where do the giant spice worms come into play?
Also I do think this is a cool project with plenty of speculative worth.
Well I think it is a great idea for a project on a grand scale, but from concept to fruition, something must be done to support the idea, be it a scaled down construction of one module or a sample, if this is a viable solution right now then let’s start making these, why not.
I wonder however, how the living conditions would be once they have begun to populate and if when they are in use for a few years, rivalries would occur between them…for the water or for control over it, hmm.
Why must there be those who continually feel the need to carve up the desert and turn it “green”? The desert is fully capable to support human life in just the right numbers. Water will always be available to those in the desert who know how to find it.
Even in the quest for sustainability, humanity is unable to come down from its self appointed thrown as meddler in the natural order.
Perhaps urban life is better suited elsewhere where it need not be hidden in caves.
What a fantastic visualization and worthy homage to a great series.
Bekerman is an idiot.
Although this is an open forum, insults are really uncalled for. Bekerman, by the way, is a serious and distinguished colleague, he simply wishes to contribute to the discussion with an opinion, one that no one else has to share, yet still should read and if said politely, respect. I have read science fiction for 45 years, I read Dune in 1965, as I read City, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, City of Glass, Red Mars and many other thought provoking books. We can’t say that visualizing environments is wrong, nor those that comment on these efforts idiots.I feel the contributions of Christopher, Wilson , fatigued, falcon and ty are up to what we should be talking about.
As for the work, the problem is visualizing it as the work of generations instead of the project designed built and occupied in years or decades. As designers, architects and planners fail to incorporate the implications of time and the aleatory nature of change. Cities aren’t built, they grow, driven by unforeseeable forces throughout time. This isn’t a project…..it’s a city, and to comment on this at this scale we have to go back to the exercises in Utopic Environments from Ledeaux to Soleri. Reflection and speculative thought fed by common sense, talent and impending needs is always good
well, that may be rigth,
IF WE UNDERSTOOD WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!
Then again, you´re just probably insane…
there can not be respect for opinions like Bekerman expresses, because he simply does not know what he is talking about.
He just talks… blá, blá, blá.
complicated but beautiful concept. support this one
all i can say: beautiful!!!