CONCEPT DESIGN

Paradise unit is an aquatic infrastructure on a semi-submersible module supported by pontoons. By collecting and processing marine materials including sea sand and coral reefs, the unit functions as a self-contained architectural printer that can instantly produce and reproduce inhabitable structures onboard upon orders. They autonomously roam along coasts to pickup nomads and merge into instant cities on endless journeies. The concept took shape in my 2019 course project (Sci-Fab MAS.S60) at MIT Media Lab, with inspirations from existing spatial typologies and emerging technologies in digital fabrication, material processing, and mobility [Supervisors:Joost Bonsen and Dan Novy, MIT Media Lab].

When I joined the infrastructural design team for paradise units, I vaguely realized that it could eventually bury my architectural career. After all, everyone here can become an architect simply by telling their ideas to the design algorithms, putting their statement on public vote, and waiting for unit placement. Nobody cares if the proposal would fit its neighboring units. Tomorrow, it will become obsolete and leave for new neighbors. After a few weeks, it will be voted out, decomposed, and recycled to make room for another imaginative design...

---Memoir from a (former) architect