LITTORAL ADAPTATION

| Research Design Studio | Spring 2009 |

| Cornell University | Instructors: Dana Cupkova + Kevin Pratt |

The Littoral Adaptation studio is the third in a series of research studios focused on scalar relationship between urban ecology and component based performative assemblies. The goal is to refine a holistic methodology of adaptive component systems in attempt to create an architecture that is tightly bound to the specificity of dynamic local ecologies while at the same time recognizing that contemporary means of production require a degree of repetitive process and material uniformity to achieve economic viability. Fundamentally, it is a biomimetic methodology, in that it seeks to exploit the malleability of flexible component assemblies that are tuned to the conditions that obtain at a definite set of points in both space and time. This studio proposed the development of a minimal impact coastal research station in La Jolla, California, while addressing large scale energy throughput based on environmental site analysis with embedded smaller scale component systems specific to local ecological conditions. The methodology of design is based on a mode of working that merges the capabilities of parametric digital technologies with environmental data sets simulated through both linear and non linear dynamic data modeling for the purpose of defining new sustainable material form.

| STUDENT TEAM: David Bosworth, Brandon Collins, Travis Fitch, Katie Kasabalis, Jamie Pelletier, Samuel Reilly, Danielle Sanchick, Stephanie Vito, Yindgi Zhang |