by Eric Fura, M.Arch 2018
Advisor: Adam Marcus
Wastescape reclaims some of the most public territory of San Francisco—the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant—as public-occupied space through architectural intervention and addition. Eighty percent of the city’s sewage and storm water drain to and are treated at this facility before being released back into our shared resource, the San Francisco Bay. Wastescape connects neighborhoods and creates wildlife habitat in a territory of infrastructure previously impervious to the surrounding communities, operating as public asset rather than nuisance. The project questions our current understanding of what constitutes “nature” in an urban context, substituting traditional forms of ecology with constructed and purpose-built ecologies. Questions of acceptable risk are juxtaposed with issues of gentrification as visitors are exposed to the processes of water treatment. This new access corridor of walkways, bird canopies, and public space provokes alternative usage opportunities at the intersection of infrastructure and urbanism.