‘I believe we have an important global message and a real, locally strategic project, designed to evolve and resonate thanks to local communities,’ São Paulo based architect Marko Brajovic says about the result of the Floating Architecture workshop he led in the Amazon. The nature of the project remains a secret until it is entered to the WDCD Climate Action Challenge. But Brajovic says he was ‘absolutely surprised’ by the outcome.

Ten participants from Brazil, Spain, the Philippines, Japan and England joined the Floating Architecture workshop organized by the Architectural Association (AA). They gathered two weeks ago on the shores of Mamori Lake in the middle of the Amazon rain forest to work together with the local population on architectural solutions that can adapt to tidal variations and extreme water level rises.

Including the workshop leaders Brajovic, AA School professor Nacho Marti, and biomimicry expert Alessandra Araujo the team consisted of architects, designers and a biologist. Some ten local inhabitants added their real life experience with regular floodings of the lake to the workshop.

Amazing experience

‘We set a temporary lab in a middle of the forest,’ Brajovic explains, ‘where we worked with almost twenty people for more than a week on one project proposal. We couldn’t imagine the degree of inspiration our team got from the local cultural and natural context. The ingredients where there, and an amazing experience and final project proposal emerged.’

Brajovic doesn’t want to disclose the result of the workshop yet, but he makes clear that it will be entered to the WDCD Climate Action Challenge and that the entire team is determined to develop the project further in future.

We haven’t a clue whether the accompanying photo’s reveal anything of the upcoming challenge entry. We’ll know in a week!

Top image: Model test during Floating Architecture workshop (all photos by Floating Workshop/AA School)

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