Amphibious Architecture is a floating installation in New Yorkwaterways that glows and blinks to provide an interface between lifeabove water and life below. Two networks of floating interactivetubes, installed at sites in the East River and the Bronx River, housea range of sensors below water and an array of lights above water. Thesensors monitor water quality, presence of fish, and human interest inthe river ecosystem. The lights respond to the sensors and createfeedback loops between humans, fish, and their shared environment. AnSMS interface allows citizens to text-message the fish, to receivereal-time information about the river, and to contribute to a displayof collective interest in the environment.
Instead of treating the rivers with a “do-not-disturb” approach, theproject encourages curiosity and engagement. Instead of treating thewater as a reflective surface to mirror our own image and our ownarchitecture, the project establishes a two-way interface betweenenvironments of land and water. In two different neighborhoods of NewYork, the installation creates a dynamic and captivating layer oflight above the surface of the river. It makes visible the invisible,mapping a new ecology of people, marine life, buildings, and publicspace and sparking public interest and discussion.
[By the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia University in collaborationwith the Environmental Health Clinic at New York University. Commissioned for "Toward the Sentient City" by the ArchitecturalLeague of New York]
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