El Refugio de la Familia Torres

Phoenix, Arizona, is on course to become uninhabitable by 2100 due to extreme heat and dust storms. Coupled with millions of climate refugees that will pass through Phoenix by the century’s end, the city will experience substantial pressure to house and support its residents in new ways. As we approach certain extinction, it is time to consider how to make the best out of our predicament and imagine bold actions that protect those who are most vulnerable. In the case of Arizona, expansive areas of open land could generate enough solar energy to power the continental United States. This untapped energy source offers incredible potential for subsurface construction.

PHOENIX2100 imagines the transformation of Phoenix for a 22nd-century apocalyptic climate. The project is premised on a vision of America that opens its borders and accepts all climate refugees, dismantling its present condition as a “fortress” nation. Furthermore, it proposes a policy framework that accelerates current efforts by The Holocene Project to understand climate variability and generate rapid adaptation strategies in vulnerable U.S. cities. Moreover, it envisions a Climate Citizen Corps, a cooperative labor force that utilizes the framework of the Green New Deal to accomplish its climate infrastructure goals.

PHOENIX2100 is narrated through the story of a Guatemalan family seeking asylum in the United States in the year 2055, The Torres family. The project narrative takes us through the two-year period in which the family migrates, settles, and begins to work in the transformed Phoenix, Arizona of the future. In 2055, extreme temperatures and dust storms have made the surface unlivable, pushing new dwellings underground and changing the day and night cycles to mitigate the uninhabitable conditions of the surface. Moreover, contemporary single-family homes are designed to meet the challenges of underground life. Work and play are powered by energy production on the surface.


   

In the 45 years that follow, Phoenix is transformed from a sprawling city to a subsurface city, constructed in earthen structures and managed by a proactive and just government. The world of PHOENIX2100 could be our future world. This is not a radically new world but simply an extension of the processes that began in the old one.