Napeague Harbor is a coastal lagoon on Long Island, New York, containing salt marshes and mudflats that support fish, shellfish, and birds. However, it is threatened by pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing, and efforts are underway to protect and restore its ecosystem. The client needed to build a home that would be moved on the site. The design transforms the building into a giant planter placed on the bottom of the sea again. The interior space is re-wilded and de-spatialized, allowing the spaces and traces of human life to dissolve into nature.
School of Design | Graduate Interior Design
Student: Chan Chan
Faculty: David Ling
The design for the house actively shapes people to their underwater living environments, with parts of the building silent in the water to protect them from natural disasters. At the same time, the building is a carbon-neutral passive house. It is completely hidden from nature while avoiding the effects of disasters.
A discarded liquid nitrogen storage tank was chosen as the container for the design. The container is transformed into a giant “flowerpot” and relocated at the bottom of the sea for human habitation. The entire building is completely carbon neutral and zero energy (water and electricity) through plants and RO systems. The interior space is rewilded and de-spatialized, allowing the space and traces of human life to dissolve into nature.
The floor plan shows us how the room fades into nature. The sections show us the strategies of sustainability (temperature and water circulation). The last two are interior renderings that show the spatial experience of being hidden in nature.
