In a future where water will be an increasingly scarce resource, we can no longer afford to use potable water to discard sewage, or leave stormwater uncollected.  Considering that water shortages (both as a result of increasing population and climate change), will prevail, mega-cities like Tokyo will be forced to harvest and recycle all water. This will render stormwater- and sewer lines useless: These forgotten aqueducts will lie dormant: thousands of miles of complex and interwoven infrastructural networks, waiting to be uncovered. Waiting to be reclaimed…

 

Sewers, which have historically been overlooked as useable space due to socio-cultural bias, have incredible spatial potential to form urban connections: Not only do they form networks throughout the city, running for miles (Tokyo’s new 1993 sewer line alone stretches for 346km, and comprises of over 31000 separate infiltration inlets), but they are also already remarkably well designed, as they have been engineered to withstand even the harshest storm.

 

In a future without parks – In a future where growing urban populations will result in a decline (and eventual disappearance) of open public space, we can no longer afford our cultural biases.  the Underline proposes the reclamation of these buried urban networks, redeveloping them into useable public parks, walkways and water storage aquafers. Similar to the New York Highline, the Underline attempts to reclaim unused urban space to create sustainable, ecologically integrated public space. This is not a park, this is functioning ecosystem.