FOLDING WATER™

Folding Water™: A Ventilated Levee for a Living Estuary

Kuth Ranieri Architects

San Francisco Bay, CA

Kuth Ranieri Architect’s concept for a new “ventilated” levee was a winning submission of the BCDC’s International Rising Tides Competition. Responding to the dramatic global and climatic transformations, this dynamic levee proposal meets specific shoreline conditions to preserve: waterfront property, activities such as recreation and tourism, and the estuarine ecology dependent on tidal action. Folding Water departs from a conventional, static levee—or dam—intervention by facilitating the exchange of water through a perforated pump system to manage tidal flow and rising sea level only when needed. ‘This proposal is an alternative to the traditional barrier dike and is placed in the middle of the bay, maintaining current water levels with a series of pump walls and artificial estuaries. It looks invisible: reminiscent of what we hope our future impact to be: undetectable.” Moe Beitiks