Infrastructures of Dust

OWENS PLAYA, california

infrastructures of dust speculates on a robotic ambulatory high-rise designed to revitalize the dry lakebed of Owens Lake and reinstate economic and environmental resilience to the area through the process of dust collection and cloud seeding. basing its scope on the outline of owens lake, this project proposed the replicable model of an alternate approach to ecology and infrastructure. one that, through blendng organic and mechanical functonality, can opportunistically tackle the growing global issues of increasing water scarcity and dust pollution.

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The sheep graze on alfalfa. They don’t seem to mind the height. Maybe they do, but just like us, they are thankful for the green grass intertwined within the bowels of this structural beast we dwell in. Nor do they mind the gentle swaying and sharp intakes of air. Far below, like a diseased lung, the lakebed coughs up clouds of toxic dust into the grey air as wind whips across the barren dreamscape. Along the dark front of the dust storm in the distance can be seen another giant mechanical beast – grazing. The tower drags itself across the dust storm front, sucking up small clouds of dust into its tanks. Formations left in its wake sculpt the empty lunarscape diverting winds and reshaping the lakebed into pockets of potential green oasis.

Situated beneath the housing blocks, I can hear the ringing and whistling of our own tower’s cisterns filling with crystalline dust. Penetrating into the dusty untenable air, flexible airways direct their profane harvest back into the organ-like reservoirs. With the arrival of the first towering white walls of winter clouds, migration ceases as the beasts throughout the lakebed gather and become still. The towers turn their crystalline summer yield to the sky. Cloud seeding cannons fire shots upward in the chill air, punctuating the silence and icy dryness in salty trails of vapor fading towards the heavens. The exhalations carry the promise of rain, as injected crystalline salts combine with their meteorological dance partner, bolstering nucleation and forcing precipitation throughout the region.

Cloud seeding is our industry. We exist within the life cycle of these animalistic machines. Sheltered within the bays of these towers, mechanized farming provides the raw material of our meat and potato thoughts. Water captured in bladders that hang loosely off the tower provides for the farms and the seductions of unnatural sanctuaries that pocket the tower for migrating birds and rodents that hitch a ride. Tubes of digestive tracks run throughout the beast collecting wastewater, sending it to be cleaned and recycled in the tower’s base. This closed system of vertical farming/living machine provides food for the community of farmers and workers housed within the structure. These activities within the towering structural beasts allow us to live in this toxic environment, occupying spaces of chaotic, multifaceted, organic infrastructure.

awards_

Non-Architecture waterless competition - honorable mention

sara 2021 - award winner

competition posters/ visualization/ drawings