Water is the New Oil (2022)

Top 30 Shortlisted in Alternate Realities 2022 International Architecture Competition

Ursula Emerymcclure, Sarah Young, Michael McClure, and Kristie Cheramie

Climate change means much more than temperature increases. It means MORE water, LESS water, MORE volatility, LESS predictability, places of ABUNDANCE, and places of SCARCITY.

The Gulf Coast is saturated with rainfall; the West/Southwest is dry as a bone, on fire, and drought-ridden. So, if we understand climate change disproportionately shifts resources in the future, how can we capture abundance and redistribute it to places of scarcity?

For this alternate reality, we appropriate the Oil & Gas industries’ pipeline infrastructure currently operating across the US. At the technological forefront of liquid transfer, the industries’ fluid transport infrastructures distribute capital assets from source points to distribution networks. WaterBANKS appropriates this existing infrastructural, industrial system and proposes reusing and augmenting it to distribute water. WATER IS THE NEW OIL!!!

WaterBANKS proposes to gather the abundant stormwater from Houston and New Orleans (both plagued with rainstorm flooding), move it through the urban drainage systems to geographical low points, pipe it to the banks through constructed wetland filters, and store it in the banks for purchase and continental distribution. Metropolises and aquifers in need can connect to the distribution network and purchase water from the BANKS. Upon purchase, WaterBANKS will fill pipelines, open valves, and pump to places of scarcity. Water will trade on the stock exchange, and supply levels and demand will control pricing. Users will access this precious commodity at local parking lot distribution kiosks.

All living things need water.

WaterBANKS attempts to fulfill that need.