The Suspended Hang

Abstract

This thesis is about saving dying communities with floating systems. In Thesis I, I chose to save the residents of Venice. I was inspired from spending my spring semester 2019 in Venice. And I realized that in today’s world, the way people are travelling and flooding the cities are one of the main problems for the disappearance of the residents. When tourists invade a city, residents start leaving their own cities for many reasons and their houses are turned into hotels. The city then loses its identity and its traditions. Instead of damaging and ruining the destination, how can tourists save it and revive it? How can tourists be self-sustained? How to design a system that is beneficial and brings positive exchange between the tourists and the residents? So I created a plug-in technology and machinery system used by the tourists and the residents to leave a good impact on Venice. This system can be applied on any floating town that suffer from the same problems.

In Thesis II, I decided to work with another group of users, I switched from saving the residents of Venice with floating machines to saving another dying community «the fishermen on the coast of Lebanon» with the floating systems. For thousands of years, Lebanon’s coastline has been a vital source of sustenance for local residents. But because of the chaotic urban growth, real estate development, privatization of the coast and pollution have now made it increasingly difficult for fishermen to stay active, hence enormously affecting the decline of Lebanon’s fishing industry which is increasing Lebanon’s import for fish. All these new coastal constructions and project development have caused tension on the remaining fisherman to move away. So a lot of lebanese coastal cities are suffering from the tension of losing its cultural heritage by the disappearance of the fisherman community. Where can the fisherman seek refuge in order to start growing again and not letting this important industry fade away and die? How do we revive the fishing industry in Lebanon? Would it be possible to move the fisherman to the sea, and build a sustainable floating village where fisherman can practice better and have a growing community and a base to lean on? So I created a main structural floating system and its typologies depending on the functions needed. All these different typologies are clustered together to form a floating village for the fishermen.