REdhook Event Pier

Redhook, Brooklyn, New York

Who are we serving as designers when we fight the ocean? How long can we pull it off? A responsible solution for flood prone, waterfront infill sites is not to build on them. Because of the short term profitability of developing sites like these, our project went from a real world proposition to a theoretical exploration.

Continuing an ongoing plan to unite the Brooklyn waterfront with shared recreational uses, this project was conceived as an event space, addressing ecology and time, referencing impermanence. Modern fairgrounds are crisscrossed by discrete systems of animal and human circulation, allowing for sports competitions and cultural celebrations.

Accepting the reality that a single plot of land is not capable of preventing flooding, the site will be allowed to flood. We studied and produced ideas that talk about how human and sporting activity relates to sea level in an urban setting. As the sea level rises, what events can take place on the site and what are the meaningful sectional relationships between the various activities and actors?