DRAFT OF DRAFT

Self-assembly can be generally defined as the process in which a disordered system of pre-existing components forms an organized structure as a consequence of specific local interactions among the components and with no human intervention.

My project speculates in utilizing self-assembling technologies and chemical interactions to generate a system of migrating architectures. The site is Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a giant accumulation of man made debris suspended in the waters of the north pacific ocean, calculated to be roughly twice the size of Texas. The patch, conformed 80-90% out of plastic materials, is mostly formed by rubbish dumped from the U.S.A.’s west coast and from Japan and is gathered together by the North Pacific Gyre, a system of prevailing currents that collects the debris forming the patch. Through chemical interactions, these floating migrating architectural elements would self assemble in and around the patch to collect, trap and bind together all the floating plastic and marine litter, creating a new unique, floating construct.

There are a number of reasons for which self-assembly has generated such interest and although definitions of the term vary immensely and the subject has not been formalized, resulting in it being sometimes overused and distorted, we are undeniably intrigued by the spontaneous appearance of order from disorder. Living cells self-assemble, so the understanding of life and it’s basic building blocks would require the understanding of self-assembly processes. Also, it has been considered fundamental in the development of nanotechnology and the fabrication of nano-structures. Biological systems as well as a variety of inorganic physical systems exhibit self-assembling or self-ordering behavior and involve components from the molecular (crystallization) to the planetary scale (solar systems and weather patterns). Drawing on these systems for inspiration, scientists and professionals from numerous disciplines like chemistry, biology, engineering, and mathematics, to name a few, have begun to investigate the self-assembly phenomenon in hopes of learning to design and control the behavior of these systems. My interest is to study and speculate on the potentials of self-assembling systems and processes on an architectural scale.

Last term, I created an experimental model to study the basic aspects and conditions of self-assembly and parallel to this created drawings that would investigate and speculate on the potentials of this processes.I intend to continue the experimentation with the model and to incorporate into the project a speculative narrative of a social-cultural aspect, a ‘self organized social structure’ that develops on this newly created land, a micro-nation that is born from the rubbish and discarded material of other countries.