ABSTRACT
The Buoyant Ecologies project suggests one model for a more agile response to sea-level rise adaptation: an approach predicated on linking material performance with ecological performance across multiple scales. The project integrates computational methods of design, fabrication, and ecological simulation to propose a floating architecture that interfaces productively with the surrounding ecosystem, yielding benefits for both human and non-human environments. The focus of the research is developing ecologically optimized, fiber-reinforced polymer composite substrates that provide diverse, upside-down habitats for underwater marine life. Beyond its function as a floating research platform, the Float Lab demonstrates how this research melds digital techniques of design, simulation, and fabrication to compute ecological performance across scales. The data is contingent and coordinated at every stage of the integrated workflow and at every scale of the project, from the code that controls geometric variation, to the fabrication of the material substrate, to the modular floating breakwater, to the archipelago that performs at the ecosystemic scale.
