EXPERIMENTAL ISLAND

Water and land are tightly associated with each other. As the surface area with most human interaction with water, Shoreline became our focus of studying the relationship between water and land. We looked at the properties of land and water around the site and concluded that the material exchange process between geological and hydro-geological entities was our proxy condition. We have created a proxy by assembling a non-fictive historical core sample of Randalls and Wards Island that tells the story of how New York’s filled shorelines are simultaneously eroded and sediment.

We consider flood as design element. Our projection is to utilize different flooding/water cycles in different future scenarios of sudden flooding events and long-term sea level rise on Randalls and Wards Island. Accommodating three shoreline conditions and human occupancy, we see Randalls and Wards Island as a test site for finding strategies and programs that could work with water coming to the land. Our proposal is based on several crucial time points in the future of sea level rise and the consequential hydrological events and the material exchange processes. In our project, Randalls and Wards Island will arguably become a testimony for this relationship of collaborating with water that is usually considered harmful in today’s context.