The workshop was conducted in a studio setting and devoted to exploring relational design strategies and digital design methodologies for speculative infrastructures. New York City, with its breadth of ecological and urban complexity and in particular its urbanizing industrialized waterways, served as the primary context explored.

The aim of the workshop was to empower designers to negotiate the complex and data-rich environments available through professional mapping and information systems. Participants developed design interventions that addressed emerging ecological crises found in New York ecologies of the present and near-future.

The format of the workshop included daily workshop sessions focusing primarily on Grasshopper, Rhino’s parametric design plug-in, and evening lectures and presentations from practitioners and experts in the fields of sustainability and computational design. The workshop covered strategic workflows for data set analysis and mapping, complex rule-based geometries, as well as techniques for digital fabrication.

The workshop culminated in a public exhibition and opening event on the evening of Friday, August 21, 2009.

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