DIANA MYKHAYLYCHENKO 2019-20 YEAR 3

The Generative Architecture of Predictive Hydrology, or: how I learned to
reverse the flow

Making Buildings Prize

A riverside clubhouse and rowing school sited on Wolf Point peninsula celebrates the legacy of the Chicago River. The river links the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and has remained the aqueous spine of the city until the present day. Famous for defying laws of hydrology when made to flow backwards in 1900, and lying frozen and unnavigable for up to 5 months a year, it acts as a reader for the environmental state of the city.

The project explores notions of generative architectural decay. It sets out to challenge how we might build in such exposed site conditions, to define an algorithmically led design methodology learning from these seemingly unstable scenarios and resulting in a series of innovative spatial and material negotiations between water and land. The dual programme and hybrid structural strategy, combining timber frame and carbon-fibre elements with highly bespoke detailed connectors, creates a destination community building distinct from the surrounding corporate glass and steel metropolis.

Tutors: Greg Storrar, Farlie Reynolds