WATER PORE PARTNERSHIP →

POREFORM

Poreform is an urban surface—an intelligent and flexible system of pores—that absorbs and collects water likeskin for a city. Capable of rapid saturation and slow release, the pores of this urban skin are inlets to a new adaptable infrastructure below its surface.

Las Vegas is an arid city that suffers from periods of extreme water scarcity punctuated by destructive flooding in the densest urban areas. The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), which governs the water resources of the city, continually strains against the outer limits of the available supply in an effort to prevent systematic shortages. Meanwhile, because of Las Vegas’s position in the center of the Las Vegas Valley hydrographic basin, the water infrastructure of the city is incapable of absorbing the 27.1 billion gallons of rainwater that flood the center of Las Vegas every time it rains.