FloatLab

FloatLab is a platform, vessel, and lens that enables the public to experience the Schuylkill River and its ecology in a meaningful way. The project aims to create enhanced environmental awareness through an aesthetic experience of the water. By allowing visitors to directly engage with and re-imagine the river, FloatLab seeks to promote environmental stewardship. We believe public art that literally changes perspectives can create public awareness and shift collective consciousness around urban nature and environmental health to demonstrate how these systems are interrelated.

In physical form, FloatLab is a 75-foot-wide inhabitable floating steel ring. It is designed to accommodate the tidal water levels of the Schuylkill River, which see a 5–7 foot change daily, through a system of ballast chambers and mooring piles—not unlike a boat or pier. The structure frames the water both literally and figuratively and creates a new experience of the river by allowing a public promenade into the water to see, hear, and sense the river in a heightened and unfamiliar way. The circular form provides an accessible path that connects visitors directly with the river, while the sectional tilt offers an eye-level view of the water.

Functioning as a laboratory of sorts within the Schuylkill, FloatLab will be a venue for public activity and bring focus to the improvements of Philadelphia’s riverfront. Visitors will be able to experience a panoramic view of the 50-acre Bartram’s Garden, a designated National Historic Landmark, and the south Schuylkill River’s transforming industrial landscape. FloatLab’s chartreuse color, inspired by the autumn leaves at Bartram’s Garden, serves as a reminder of the continuing legacy of the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America and the capacity for the vibrancy of nature to focus our attention on the environment. Despite the damaging industrial history of the Schuylkill River, decades of ecological restoration beginning with what became the first Federal Superfund project in 1949, exemplify the opportunities of ecological restoration, but also the need for continued progress. FloatLab will be a landmark project for Philadelphia and will provide an important space for collective contemplation, experience and discussion that can catalyze a community-wide environmental consciousness.

We worked with naval engineer C.R. Cushing to develop the engineering and ballast system for FloatLab, which subdivides the circular form into 10 chambers beneath and adjacent to the walking surface. Similar to the ballast on ships, these chambers are filled with predetermined amounts of ballast water to lower FloatLab into the water in a balanced manner, with the outer edge of FloatLab sitting just 9” above the water. Before certain weather events and over the winter, this ballast water can also be removed from the chambers to limit water ingress. In the event that water from wakes or waves enters the walking area below the water surface, a drain at the bottom of the ramp will discharge water back into the river. Furthermore, in the event of a large ingress of water, the ballast chambers contain sufficient air (buoyancy) to keep FloatLab afloat until the water can be pumped out. FloatLab will only be open when staffed, and the team has worked closely with Bartram’s Garden so that FloatLab can be incorporated into their existing water programming and water safety protocols.  The team developed a prototype in 2016 to review this process before proceeding with the project, and safety has continued to be a guiding principle as we develop this exciting and unique project.