FloatLab is a platform, a vessel, a lens, and a threshold through which the public will experience the Schuylkill River and its ecology in a meaningful and unprecedented way. Offering an eye-level view of the river, FloatLab is designed to reconnect Philadelphians and visitors with their natural setting. As a programmatic loop, the project combines its educational functions - remediation workshops, educational events, living laboratories - with unexpected visual and physical relationships with the water's surface. This shift in perspective will create a space that indexes and measures the invisible properties of the water, examining the relationship between environmental science, environmental experience, and environmental stewardship.
Philadelphia Mural Arts is acting as collaborator and client for FloatLab with support from the William Penn Foundation. Floatlab has also been awarded an MIT CAST grant, an MIT CAU grant, as well as an honorable mention for the 2018 Progressive Architecture awards through Architect Magazine.
