“Each age demands its own form,” the Bauhaus architect Hannes Meyer wrote in his 1926 essay, “The New World”. We live in an uncertain world where the urge to explore, design, and inhabit the oceans is rapidly intensifying. As land-based resources dwindle, and environmental crises escalate, a radical rethinking of how we live with, on, above, and below the ocean is imperative to anticipate, adapt and prevent.
In response, UNICA, IMREDD, chair UX & Future of Living Architectural Lab invites transdisciplinary participants from all over the world to embark on a 11-day experimental summer lab: a nomadic hands-on living laboratory, a place to explore, stimulate, simulate, and test disruptive ideas for the “Brave New World” of future living where humanity thrives in extreme marine environments. The challenge is to sculpt speculative ocean colonies in extreme environments & survival conditions:
- Indian Ocean (near Madagascar) – A floating observatory & marine conservation habitat
- Caribbean Sea (Gardi Sugdub Island) – A climate refugee colony resisting sea-level rise
- Barents Sea – An extreme-environment mining & military outpost
- Mediterranean Sea – A blue economy hub rethinking the region resource flows
- Pacific Ocean – A speculative, undiscovered frontier TBD by participants
The summer school is driven by non-formal education, experimental, transdisciplinary process and guided by core thematic concepts. Participants, in group of three/ four, will have to go throughout the below:
- Future living, Extreme Environments & survival conditions understanding – Exploring social needs and cutting-edge technologies to design a fully self-sufficient colony
- Systemic Biomimicry – Learning from marine organisms to design regenerative architectural ecosystems.
- AI-Kitchen Tools – to explore designs
- Testing designs in physical oceanic conditions – using 3D printing & rain simulators
- Learning by doing, discovering & exchanging– field visits, encounters, & playful settings
By the end of the summer school, participants are to generate:
- A 1mn AI animated video, showcasing the project, its process & concept
- An A0 summary Board showcasing the process & the outcome
- And to showcase their work in an exhibition that is to animate Nice public space, and engage interaction with the public over the topic.
