Electric Night Swimming | Bioplurb | Coney Island | BanG Studio

Pollutants could be found in the mechanical remediation sites. Naturally, the plants colonized the machines. Soon, the plant concentration at the collection machines became so dense that the machines were scarcely identifiable. By the end of the decade, the plants had set the machines free. The new hybrid plant/machines roamed the canal looking for new pollution to eat. Scientists named this hybrid system the bioplurb.
In the last decade, much of the bioplurb has starved. The water is no longer rich pollution. What remains is a bio-industrial ruin. The 2050, bioplurb is a relic of an industrial past. No longer functioning in its former role, it has become an amenity in the canal and the surrounding neighborhood. Swimmers climb its stalks and dive off into the clean water. Its branches have infiltrated local architecture creating transient spaces. Larger root-balls straddle the canal creating new and unplanned crossings.

The bioplurb has given a new identity to Gowanus. Its bioluminescence illuminates the canal at night. The locals swim at all hours under its soft glow. By reference to Coney Island, the locals call their night activity, “Electric Swimming.”........more

Sports and Recreational Centre | Green Forum Poreč | Porec | Croatia | 3HLHD Architects

In the center of the town of Poreč, important Croatian tourist destination in Istrian peninsula, there is a large vacant space. This large space of the town parking lot has exceptional potential, because of the nearby old town and the Adriatic Sea, the pedestrian hub, the town access roads and the other city contact zones.......more

NATIONAL TOURISTROUTE MARINATOMTA | Stranda, Norway | Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

location: Geiranger harbour, Stranda, Norway
program: Viewpoint and recreation area
client: Norwegian public roads administration
size: 500 m2
commission type: direct commission
status: sketch project
year: scheduled completion 2011
The Geiranger fjord is listed on the UNESCO world heritage list and ranks as one of the most spectacular fjord landscapes in the world. The sheer intensity of impressions can sometimes be overwhelming, for on clear days it is as if the world was never quite as transparently deep and saturated as it is in Geiranger. The project is located in the midst of this natural intensity, by the water’s edge. The intention was to create a platform –in the figure of a wooden pier– that would work as a discreet yet robust element where travellers and local people could meet and blend in an unassuming and relaxed manner; a kind of counterweight to the spectacular scenery, which makes the experience of Geiranger even richer....more