F_RM Lab - Future Public Environments Symposium

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As a founding cohort of the University of Waterloo F_RMlab, a group focused on the study of advanced parametric design and computation, the inaugural event organized in coordination with the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and their Situated Technologies group, participants were challenged to develop over the course of two days a study of a self identified topic, site, and problem, and the presentation of a conceptual solution.

Soft Boundary

Within my workshop group, the focus was to develop a representative intervention proposed for Sri Lanka’s Trincomalee Bay where river pollutants and sediments are constantly deposited. A synthetic field is proposed as an active membrane that functions to both gather and collect sediments and pollutants in the water, helping to maintain the local fishing communities by ensuring access to the bay during extreme flooding. A scaled mock-up was constructed to demonstrate feasibility of the concept through an abstract experiential interface staged in the central atrium space of the Cambridge School of Architecture.