Civic Stones

MIT Core 2 | Spring 2018 | Professor Christoph Kumpusch

A speculative project for the YMCA of New York City, sited in Coney Island, the project considers how one mediates relationships between bodies of humans and bodies of water. The YMCA has long been an institution which establishes its identity in the multitudes of participants it attracts. Negotiating difference and concentrations of difference was of particular interest in organizing program.

This difference of spheres expanded into the context as well. With rising sea levels and frequent flooding, the long term residents of the stretch of sand in east New York experience a more tenuous relationship to the water than the seasonal tourists. What does it mean to build an aquatic center in a flood plain? And how might a community landmark facilitate both recreation and resilience without suggesting a constant state of emergency?