P L A C E
Contextual and Aesthetic Impact
On the Street
Poreform has a strong urban presence, but not via the typical
architectural tools that define ‘place-making’ today. Not
as an object but as a field, Poreform offers a suggestive
connection between the surface of a city (typically thought of
to be hard, constant, and impenetrable) and the vivid, active,
infrastructural space below the city. The urban surface itself is
an underutilized site for defining active space.
The skin of Poreform is both an urban park and a
communication device for the city’s critical resources. The
top surface of each sponge is an occupiable landscape with
walking paths, gathering areas and undulating topography for
the playful. During rainfall, high zones provide protected paths
across the surface. The valleys of the surface tell the city in
real-time about the water level. Using the native language of
Las Vegas, an array of LED’s mounted to buoys rise and fall to
brightly communicate the presence of water or dimly signal
scarcity.
B
A
C
D
E
F
G
H
J
K
50'
50'
50'
60'
50'
60'
50'
50'
50'
D.1
1
2
1
2
Below the Surface
The sub-surface tank is 3.6 million cubic feet and proportionally
similar to another beloved infrastructure, the Turbine Hall in
London, UK. Approximately 75 feet wide x 100 feet tall and
480 feet long, the space is capable of great, civic work and an
impressive disposition. Valleys between the primary cables
capture surface runoff rapidly, while the open pores collect
water into the large basin below. As the tank awaits another
rain, it hosts temporary exhibits and performance events.
Dampness and dryness are always on display as the pore oculi
allow water in or frame an empty sky. As the water level inside
the tank changes according to the daily conditions, the buoyed
floor rises and falls and the space expands and contracts.
When people occupy their water infrastructure, they
understand their relationship to their precious natural
resources in an entirely new way.
TA N K
PRIMARY STRUCTURE
PRIMARY SUPPORT CABLES
CABLE NETTING
INTERIOR PORE RING
CONCRETE BEAMS
& COLUMNS
SECANT PILE PERIMETER WALL
SURFACE STRUCTURE
SURFACE SLAB
INTAKE
DISCHARGE
500 YR
FLOOD
100 YR
FLOOD
TYPICAL
RAINFALL
SURFACE STRUCTURAL
DIAGRAM
TANK PLAN
TANK SECTION
2 1
3
6
5
4
7
