Systems are the basis for life, transferring information, matter and energy. In order to understand and utilize our world more effectively we must continuously expand our connections to transfer new knowledge and resources. The ocean is largely disconnected yet it covers seventy one percent of the surface of the earth. We have in fact explored more of the surface of the moon than the underwater portion of our own planet.
The ocean primarily transfers food, vehicles and oil. Oil requires built infrastructure which inhabits the ocean in a very telling way, reaching from the surface to the ocean floor with no active systems in between. After the available oil is drawn from the ground the companies seal their drilling ports, remove modular living systems and abandon the structure. The story goes on however; since the oil platform was placed it began to diversify the open water environment simply by providing structure where new biological user groups can exist. Beauty is found in ironic juxtaposition and the opportunity for design lies in developing an enhanced connection between infrastructure and the forgotten middle oceanic zone.
The reef system as an established biological network creates a logic for inhabiting aqueous space. Coral polyps which provide sustenance for the entire ecosystem become the physical building block for the next generation of polyps when they die. In a reef death is a system of growth.
The science of architecture must adapt its materials and methods to be applied to this alien environment. Techniques and processes in the building of submersibles, airplanes and the space stations can directly inform the architectural process. This investigation becomes scientific in terms of materials testing as well as marine biology. Initiating on the Gulf of Mexico, where the most abandoned platforms exist right now, allows a network of information and data to transfer between platforms creating a three dimensional mapping of the Gulf of Mexico rather than a point sample.
The connection is created by a set of simple systems which integrate with the existing systems of the site and at the same time facilitate an enhanced network which could never have occurred without the architecture.
The ocean primarily transfers food, vehicles and oil. Oil requires built infrastructure which inhabits the ocean in a very telling way, reaching from the surface to the ocean floor with no active systems in between. After the available oil is drawn from the ground the companies seal their drilling ports, remove modular living systems and abandon the structure. The story goes on however; since the oil platform was placed it began to diversify the open water environment simply by providing structure where new biological user groups can exist. Beauty is found in ironic juxtaposition and the opportunity for design lies in developing an enhanced connection between infrastructure and the forgotten middle oceanic zone.The reef system as an established biological network creates a logic for inhabiting aqueous space. Coral polyps which provide sustenance for the entire ecosystem become the physical building block for the next generation of polyps when they die. In a reef death is a system of growth.
The science of architecture must adapt its materials and methods to be applied to this alien environment. Techniques and processes in the building of submersibles, airplanes and the space stations can directly inform the architectural process. This investigation becomes scientific in terms of materials testing as well as marine biology. Initiating on the Gulf of Mexico, where the most abandoned platforms exist right now, allows a network of information and data to transfer between platforms creating a three dimensional mapping of the Gulf of Mexico rather than a point sample.
The connection is created by a set of simple systems which integrate with the existing systems of the site and at the same time facilitate an enhanced network which could never have occurred without the architecture.
5 comments:
OK, the ocean is a system. And so our little conversations of last spring have not gone to naught.
Right now I am collaging, rendering and pasting up a series of four collages- Philadephia drenched in raging rainstorms, sidewalks cracking under the dampness, debris piling up at streetcorners as the floods subside, waters pouring thru open doors and windows. A system run amok, you would say. No?
sounds like a system trying to find (create) balance
Nate
i have variuous collected images regard oil riggs rtigging etc.
additionally there is plenty of useful information directly or indirectly for via the oiul and sea way industry...indeed they dont call it naval architecture for nothing
i would also reccommend looking through the radio free off shore telecasters that broadcast pirate radio to london in the 60s and 70s, Sealand the attempt at a new nation on a floating platform, and the anti aircraft barrier again for engalnd dated to wwII located off shore in the english channel
there are some great images architecturally and develop compltetely from a system of the ground plane as water
additionally look maybe into some ships such as the ones they use to move the oil rigs that can sink and unsink themselves they are an ultimate hybrid of shipsubmarine drydock
Neight-
You got the feedback: Terrific ideas, solid research- are you being just too ambitious by attaching just too many directions on a project that needs to have some solid resolution during the spring? Are the underwater technics the strongest component here to drive everything else? It the coral reef an idea that is not yet proven to be worthwhile pursuing- why not just recycle and reuse rather than abandon? And how important IS the program in this? How much of the research center program will affect the overall design, such that it doesn't matter how particular spaces are shaped for particular reasons. And deep suspicion over the tourism aspect- so much of the history of tourism destroys fragile cultural and ecological settings...shouldn't you keep them fully away? Or is that researcher/tourist push-and-pull really more of a driving issue than that of the coral reef reuse? Right now it seems more attention-grabbing and all-so-clever than really well tailored to the issues at hand.
Food for thought....and hopefully an impetus for AAH to step in and respond from Italia. jp
ok john ,
you asked for response and from here in 5 terre i will give it.
the tourists are simultanesously the life blood and the death by a thousand cuts for this place.
can architecture save place? interesting question but i don't know if it a full enough idea...i met an archtect here but he doesn't do architecture.
i like his picture of a submarine under the toys series by the way...located here:
http://www.lineacinqueterre.com/collect_toys.htm
these ideas need more focusing more fleshing out
to remember is that the sexy, flashy ideas may not hold up under intesive study...a question directly at play during alumni jurying last year, and a message i was to carry on to students this year.
can the focus can the thesis go the distance?
i think these ideas are a seed but we need some fertile soil to plant, them in or float them in.
more discussions and grillings to come on wednesday - you best be there! well i hoipe you will be.
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