Sao Paulo

The outpost settlement of 2100 São Paulo is a system of connected bikeways and pedestrian paths suspended over repurposed buildings, rainforest timber farms, aquaponics installations and fish farms and medicinal-crop fields. The early morning forest buzzes to life, having been the subject of a vigorous replanting effort, and now serves as an informal alarm clock. The settlement’s residents descend from their sleeping pods to begin the day.

Family pods are suspended overhead and accessed by a staircase or, in the case of the smaller pods, directly from the elevated path that intersects them. Flooding is very much a concern in this area, especially between the months of November and March. Thus, one of the main objectives of the outpost is to incorporate as much forest as possible and, in doing so, provide permeable surfaces for the absorption of flood rains. This was achieved in part by removing much of the existing hardscape and elevating transportation routes. Pedestrian and bike paths run the full length of the site and branch out to clusters of small residential communities.

The dry season in São Paulo coincides with its sister city Troll’s period of long polar nights, lasting up to 24 hours, which occurs between the months of May and November. A noticeable uptick in the settlement’s population can be seen during those months, as people eager to escape the dark winter come to São Paulo on short work, educational, and volunteer assignments. Since most of the population is temporary, residential space has been pared down and redefined to be more community centered.

This helps in conserving energy and also encourages these temporary groups to become more fully integrated into communities. Sleeping quarters are arranged in small clusters among the trees, with all roads leading to the “mothership,” a large circular structure that houses dining, recreational, and other common spaces, located near the bank of the Rio Pinheiros.

A stroll along the river reveals infrastructure designed to perform much like a marsh would, purifying water and providing a habitat for a diverse ecosystem. An artificial water module on the shoreline and a number of floating devices that contain plants useful for phytoremediation act to clean the water, sequester carbon, and protect the coast. Farther afield lies the open rainforest, the source of valuable medicinal extracts, some of which are gathered and processed for export, while the rest are used in the settlement’s medical spa.

On the other side of the river we see fields of sugarcane, planted as a biofuel crop. Up above, the high-speed hyperloop system, which replaced the old rail line, carries passengers to surrounding outposts and transports resources for export. This speeds travel and is expected to be more resistant to seasonal floods, as it is an enclosed system. Throughout the settlement, some buildings are new and others are repurposed. Former industrial warehouses and factories, for instance, now accommodate the manufacturing and packaging of medicinal exports, lumber, and sugarcane.

Also visible in the distance, deconstruction crews with their cranes are still busy recycling the rest of the city’s urban fabric. It will take only a few years for the old city to be fully dismantled and recycled, but decades will pass before the replanted forest regains its supremacy in this area. We envision the entire settlement as a functioning machine, operating to cleanse and renew the landscape. The São Paulo case study uses urban strategies based on preserving nature and natural methods to sustain human inhabitation—thought-provoking alternatives to the ways we extract, manufacture, and consume food and energy in 2015.