How does one imagine a city of the future? Anticipating the direction society will take to develop the builtenvironment is by far one of the most compelling and difficult challengesdesigners, engineers and planners must endure. With regional, as well as global,populations growing at an exponential rate, along with natural resourcesdepleting, the future of our built environments will be defined by the idea ofadaptability.
 
The built environment can bedescribed as a series of reactions to major changes rather than the preemptiveadaptability to an eventuality. This idea suggests that what already exists hasbeen done so in a relatively static manner. This leaves very little room forinterpretation of future possibilities. The idea of anticipating possibilitiesis assumed as many buildings are designed to accommodate seismic forces, deadand live loads, lighting and so on. However, this does not necessarily describethe complexity of the overall environment but rather minor variables in a muchlarger equation.
 
This project seeks to anticipatedramatic change in the rather progressive city of San Francisco, California. Asrising ocean levels threaten topographies of many coastal areas much of what iscurrently seen will cease to exist in the distant future. Much of this drawsanticipation to a loss of livable spaces, over densification, lack of valuableresources, etc. By visualizing a flexible infrastructure to overlap an existingstatic grid we begin to set the stage for creating architectural opportunities. All of which begin to address a much larger environmental system enveloping thearchitecture we experience.

This pattern study was a necessary starting point for investigating alternative city grid layouts. Among the various tessellating patterns, the standard hexagonal grid proved to be extremely flexible in terms access and mobility. Unlike the city’s existing orthogonal layout, a hexagonal grid allows both linear and radial movements to occur. This, however, is only an initial stage towards organizing a future San Francisco. By translating a pattern language into a 3-Dimensional system new organizational strategies begin to emerge.

SYSTEM ONE // Truss Structure

SYSTEM TWO // Rotation Hub

MIX-USE TOWER DESIGN