San Francisco in 100 years

[ Music ] ^M00:00:04 >> The year is 2108. Here in San Francisco water is a precious resource and the population has doubled or even tripled. How is the city going to accommodate these challenges and what's it going to look like? >> San Francisco really doesn't like to change. It's very attached to its fabric. It's really attached to its Victorian and the kind of buildings there are. So for San Francisco, going underground makes so much sense because you can make a very large and powerful infrastructure without having to change the way that the city looks so much. [Background music ] >> That was part of Iwamoto Scott Architecture's winning design in the History Channel's "Future Cities" competition. >> Yeah. They asked us to address infrastructures, datability and climate, population and growth, which will double or maybe even triple in the Bay Area in 100 years. Security was certainly one. And there were maybe three others. It was a very comprehensive list. >> Part of Iwamoto Scott's underground design is a whole network of systems called "hydro net" [assumed spelling] for transportation, resources, and even recreation. >> You're bringing up water. You're bringing up geothermal energy. It can also be a new kind of social space. Something like baths and steam, and, you know, just really making a spectacle out of it as well. So it's not only productive, it's also, possibly, pleasurable. >> This high-speed underground network would allow this incredible connectivity. And not -- it's not just underneath San Francisco we propose, but the entire Bay Region and what's now being called the mega-region, the Northern California mega-region, extending all the way to Sacramento. [ Background music ] >> The team also makes use of self-automated drilling robots for the tunnels and nanotube technology to build the walls. >> And in a hundred years, we figure that things will be ironed out. And it can happen, really, at a citywide scale. >> Eight teams of architects competed, and each vision was wildly different. This one converts every third street in the city to parks or gardens. Another proposes more vertical growth to increase housing density. [ Background music ] >> Rather than thinking of some huge, new infrastructure that would be entirely different from what we have today, we were thinking of the importance of retaining the character of the personality of the neighborhoods was the most important thing. >> Being a hundred years in the future, each tower would make use of wireless personal technology. >> The idea is that the technology in each tower would be localized and embedded. So the infrastructure -- the information technology infrastructure, solar energy, wind generation, processing of waste, all would happen within the tower. >> But the truly futuristic won out. Iwamoto Scott Architecture won $10,000.00 for the winning design. >> It was a great experience. I'm not sure we'd do it again anytime soon. It was exhausting. >> Iwamoto Scott Architecture will now go up against the winners from Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. The grand champion will be decided by you. You can vote online at the History Channel's website. I'm Kara Tsuboi, reporting for CNET News.com. ^M00:02:55 [ Music ]