The design proposal for the city of Las Vegas, USA repositions water infrastructure as a civic project. Facing a significant shortage of water in an arid region, local drainage systems are incapable of handling and collecting the water that floods the city which is positioned in a valley when it rains. Poreform, a porous concrete surface poured in place with fabric formwork, manages to absorb water, feeding rain runoffs into subterranean basins with a capacity of over 75,000 megaliters (20 billion gallons). Capable of rapid saturation and slow release, the pores of this “urban skin” are inlets to a new infrastructure that reframes water as a valuable resource rather than a liability.

Over time, water infrastructure has been hidden underground, transported behind barriers, and retained outside the city limits. Moving water into the city then requires a fragile network of energy outputs and economic inputs, which has proven difficult for growing urban environments. Contemporary cities like Las Vegas, Nevada require a new water infrastructure that is local, scalable, and carefully calibrated to the complex urban context.

The proposal redesigns towards environmental resiliency and adaptability, and seeks an active role in shaping the public realm. Las Vegas is an arid city that suffers from periods of extreme water scarcity punctuated by destructive flooding in the densest urban areas. The city continually strains against the outer limits of the available water supply, in an effort to prevent systematic shortages. Meanwhile, because Las Vegas is positioned in the center of the Las Vegas Valley hydrographic basin, the water infrastructure of the city is incapable of absorbing the 100,000 megaliters (27.1 billion US gallons) of rainwater that flood the city center every time it rains.

Poreform, an urban surface – an intelligent and flexible system of pores – is a proposal that absorbs and collects water like a skin for the city. Capable of rapid saturation and slow release, the pores of this urban skin are inlets to a new adaptable infrastructure below its surface. The client, the Water Pore Partnership (WPP), is seeking to implement Poreform as a new water infrastructure for Las Vegas, and eventually other urban environments.

For Las Vegas, Poreform is calibrated to absorb the 100,000 megaliters of rainwater, which is captured and released from a primary basin, the Downtown Tank. This principal water retention tank is the subterranean counterpart to the Poreform surface. When dry, the Downtown Tank is a temperate and temporal space for exhibitions and performances. When there is rainfall, the tank keeps downtown from flooding, and offers components of indication from above so that the public is always aware of water scarcity or excess.

We seek an architecture of carefully engineered infrastructure and a newly powerful civic realm, built within the sustainable economy of a resilient city. Poreform proposes a way of focusing the public’s attention on infrastructure that is the least visible, but most vulnerable, in today’s cities. A growing public awareness of water infrastructure can positively affect usage, conservation, and strategic growth.