Floating Platform

headshot of young woman with long dark hair
  • Shixin Chen, M.Arch.II 2015
  • Hometown

    Zhanjiang, China
  • Class

    ARCH 7912 Design B: Topics Studio
  • Instructor

    Iñaqui Carnicero
    Anupama Kundoo

Floating Platform is an education and activity center around banyan trees in the Jawahar Park in Kochi, Kerala. The floating structure provides children, especially girls, a safe space to have equal rights to play and learn, while it offers adults a space for an auditorium, classroom, or workshop. The Floating Platform is held together by tensegrity structure made of bamboo, generating a transparent space where activities inside are visible to people gathered around banyan trees. The Floating Platform enhances mutual understanding between women and men, and girls and boys.

The Floating Platform affords a prototype that protects children while they play outdoors. This prototype can coexist with banyan trees and apply to spaces for larger gatherings such as a marketplace or playground.

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