On August 27, 2019, the Architectural Ecologies Lab launched the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab in San Francisco Bay for a three-year deployment as a research platform and environmental demonstration project. The Float Lab, a cutting-edge prototype for an ecologically productive floating breakwater, merges expertise from design, advanced digital manufacturing, and marine ecology to imagine a new kind of architecture for climate adaptation.

 

The Buoyant Ecologies project is directed by AEL directors Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones, who have led five research studios at the Architecture Division at California College of the Arts exploring related themes of floating architecture, material innovation, and climate adaptation. Collaborators include the Benthic Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Kreysler & Associates, a global leader in composites manufacturing, Tri-Coastal Marine naval architects, and marine consultants DC Marine.

 

Project sponsors include the Port of Oakland, which owns Middle Harbor Shoreline Park and whose engineering team supervised the launch; the Center for Impact at California College of the Arts, formerly directed by JD Beltran; Ashland Reactive Polymers; and Miranda Leonard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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