no title Code PAC044 The setting for Amphibious Living is in a landscape of change. It's a landscape in transition from land to sea from fresh to saltwater. Our project explores this logic by using natural forces such as wind, water current, tidal changes and varying landscape to form a model for amphibious living. SITE The setting for Amphibious Living takes place in a landscape of change. It is a landscape in transition from land to sea from fresh to salt water. Within this transitional space, unique communities of plant and animals emerge that are specifically adapted for life at the margin of the sea. These organisms become linked to one another and to an assortment of specialized plant and microscopic organisms through complex networks of interaction. These unique and marginal organisms serve as models for living and interacting with the changing landscape. Successful Amphibious Living must incorporate the same logic of interaction as living organisms already existing in the landscape. Our project explores this logic by using natural forces such as wind, water current, tidal changes and varying landscape to form a model for amphibious living. By understanding the natural order and the phenomenon of water (dynamic flow, organic, life supporting, etc..) we can also develop a sensibility consistent with the existing environment. RED The first step to understanding this logic and how it impacts future development on the landscape requires the deployment of Seeds of Intervention. Seeds of Intervention, the first elements placed on the changing landscape, will serve as public reconnaissance in which information about the site will be collected and dispersed. This information will, offer insight into the what it is required to live, work and interact in that particular amphibious environment. It will also help to define the programmatic function of succeeding environments, inhabitants or habitat types and define structural configurations best suited for the specific landscape. The Seeds of Intervention will also serve as anchors for the potential neighborhoods and eventually become cultural centers for communities, serving as the focal points for local commerce, recreation celebrations and most importantly as transition zones between water, land and community. GREEN The Floating Gardens will be located on terrain with a vague boundary between land and water. The development of the floating park will serve as an indicator of the changing landscape constantly affected by the rising tide. The park will consist of trees placed on floating platforms. The platforms will exist on both land and water. When on land they will serve as elevated gardens for contemplation, picnicking, etc. On water, at high tide, they serve as floating jetties reachable by boat and used as floating gardens for contemplation, picnicking, etc. BLUE Neighborhoods explore the flow of public and private space. Floating public sidewalks form the preliminary framework for the public structure. These sidewalks incorporate all public utilities below surface and support small green areas on the surface. Housing units are then attached to these floating sidewalks and become integral objects supporting each other programmatically. The public structure of the community, developed according to the configuration of housing units, allows for visual integration and flow within the neighborhood. The housing unit further explores the flow of public and private by incorporating the structure of the housing unit to the existing public sidewalk. The skin of the unit begins as a division between public and private then becomes the roof of the unit. Storage units in below the surface of the housing platform contain rain water, and gray water used to irrigate private and public lawns. STRUCTURE/FABRICATION The development of the main structural system for the neighborhood and the individual housing unit will critically and creatively engage new strategies for design and fabrication. The use of serial production of the primary and secondary structural elements of the neighborhood and housing unit will allow for repetitive, thereby creating lower costs in fabrication, yet differentiated system components. The final configuration of each system will be directly influenced by the information that was gathered by the initial seeds of intervention. This information will allow for specific configuration of tectonic components defined by the specifics of the site and the program of this particular system. Serial mass production will be utilized with an approach of repetition and differentiation rather than standardization. The architectural and structural reasoning will be to develop tectonic systems composed of repeatable yet non-standardized building components.