WPA 2.0 is a two-phase open design competition that seeks innovative, implementable proposals that place infrastructure at the heart of rebuilding our cities during this next era of metropolitan recovery.

Anaerob-iopolis investigates congestion, intimacy and intensification of our relationship to infrastructures that cleanse or manage waste. Protrusions are made within a generic sewer grid, repositioning sewage treatment away from the urban periphery and embedding it within the urban fabric. Inside these protrusions, untreated wastewater is subject to stages of digestion through aerobic and anaerobic processes–a biological procedure known as a “living machine” that cleanses “black” wastewater through specific steps of timed isolation, movement, and filtering through bacterial species. Public program, ranging from spas, children’s play structures, and yoga gyms, is generated through a bodily entanglement with this infrastructure, juxtaposing vital mediations between bodily construction and sewage digestion.