Adapting to Water - Research Center

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA - Spring 2013. Biomimetics.

Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts.

A native Louisiana tree, the bald cypress is highly responsive to water. The cellular structure of its trunk shrinks and swells with the absence and presence of moisture. This characteristic of the bald cypress led me to design this project around rainfall and radiation, two factors which determine moisture level. As with my cellular studies of the bald cypress I examined the ultra-flat New Orleans site at 20 times magnification in order to identify hyperfine micro-climates. I mapped these micro-climates and determined where solar radiation would result in the quickest moisture dissipation on site while also measuring monthly rainfall. The result is a visual site analysis highlighting "transitional" moments at which the wettest and driest micro-climates adjoin. It is at these moments that the adaptability of the bald cypress's cellular structure is implemented spatially, thus developing the project's architecture and program organically.