HYDROPONIC RESEARCH PARK
Columbia GSAPP | Core studio 1 | 2011
1. Program | the relationship between body, surface and water
2. Site constraints | physical constraints and attractors movement between people
3. (S)urface | material deformation between model and water patterns
Program ←→ Site constraint
The underside of the 3 bridges within the site provides an optimal area of a controlled, artificially lit environment for hydroponic research.
Site constraint ←→ (S)urface
The disconnect between urban streetscape and urban parks leads the programto tie in urban infrastructure to urban nature.
(S)urface ←→ Program
Spaces are created through the collision between the aggregation of programmedsurfaces and the ebb and flow of pedestrians as attractors. The surfacesproduced a series of porous undulating structural conditions, when appliedto site constraints of people flow, forms a precise coincidence of formfrozen in time and space. The introduction of program further mitigate the porosityand thickness of surfaces.
geobasin : 100 years of re.generative architecture
U.Penn | core studio 2 | 2011
critic . Annette Fierro
published at
suckerpunch daily
drawing architecture
cataclysm collective
Imagine a future where buildings systematically disintegrate and regenerate into efficient landmasses, where inhabitants would have the ability to build and reuse structural elements as required without harming the environment. Rather than the traditionally linear process of construction, inhabitation, and demolition, re.generation architecture proposes a cyclical synthetic ecology, in which nature and built structure function in harmony.
Years of neglect, pollution, and disconnect between the natural and man-made place our environment on the cusp of self-destruction. Without such a radical change in building habits as re.generative architecture, society is faced with an imminent retaliation from nature through globally rising water-levels. With the Geo Basin, I propose a new landfill system through a series of self-destructive and regenerative architectural interventions which ultimately create pockets of islands. Through this process, the cityscape and infrastructure which currently contributes to 70% of worldwide pollution will be eliminated, and in its place, an integrated fusion of nature and built form will grow.
This project depicts the evolution of a regenerative structure through a 100-year lifecycle. As it transitions from its original function as a bathhouse into a semi-vegetated structure, it adopts different programmatic elements. Eventually, these programmatic elements manifest in a stand-alone island that could perpetually mature or reform.
This life cycle can also be recognized as a potential solution for the consistent need for landfills. The current method of landfill simply assumes that land will stay stagnant and unaffected by the high-level of pollution that each landfill produces. The system proposed here creates land through a precisely calculated ecological design system that works collaboratively with nature.
The core of the Geo Basin is embedded with a diverse selection of seeds to implement plant growth. Strong and robust plant species occupy the lower level of the structure, forming the foundational level of the anticipated island, while wild, fast-growing vegetation develops throughout the upper structure to attract a diverse range of wildlife and activities. At the same time, this wild vegetation operates as slow-momentum destructive agents, which encourage the systematic degradation/regeneration of the free-standing structure.
The façade and programmatic pockets are composed of porous filtration membranes that are biodegradable. These membranes will retain pragmatic function for approximately 50-60 years, then slowly dissipate as the plants and wildlife liberate the structure.
