Bronze Building Materials and Construction Components Design · 2022
Karst Water Filtration Staircase
- A' Design Award 2022 Bronze Winner in Building Materials and Construction Components Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Chi-Hao Chiang
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 29,596
- Verification code 5476FAA902 · Verify this award
About Karst Water Filtration Staircase
Karst, a modular staircase designed for Governors Island in New York, is like a solutional cave for people to see and hear the flowing water, with a water filtering system that brings the sensation of nature into the house, connecting the community of humans and water. Each module has a pocket for placing a bag of crushed oyster shells. The shells composed of calcium carbonate can react with acid rain to help neutralize acidified ocean by absorbing carbon dioxide. In the end, it is a filter system that can blur the boundary between humans and nature on Governors Island.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Karst, a modular staircase designed for Governors Island in New York, is like a solutional cave for people to see and hear the flowing water, with a water-filtering system that brings the sensation of nature into the house, connecting the community of humans and water. Each module has a pocket for placing a bag of crushed oyster shells, and the shells composed of calcium carbonate can react with acid rain to reduce ocean acidification by absorbing carbon dioxide.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 2032 mm x 5740.4 mm x 5130.8 mm
- Tags
- Staircase, Concrete, Water Filtration, Governors Island, Sustainable
- Production Technology
- It will be made out of concrete, and the bags with crushed oyster shells inside as the filtering material.
- Design Challenge
- Finding a way to combine two very different forms to be consistent and functional is the design challenge.
- Project Duration
- The project started in February 2020 in New York and finished in May 2020 in New York, and was exhibited on Governors Island in New York in October 2020.
- Operation Flow
- First, the rainwater drips from the pockets with bags of crushed oyster shells. After the filtration, it trickles down on the cliff and flows through the troughs. Potentially, this staircase can be not only applied indoors but also separated into modular sliced units then installed along the island. It is a filter system that can blur the boundary between humans and nature on Governors Island. In the end, the filtered water can return to the harbor and benefit the island.
- Research
- Question the relationship between industrial standardized building material and organic material in the present time when concrete jungles are sprawling on the land. Our goal is to allow nature to appear and break the traditional boundary that we humans created, separating ourselves from nature. After the explorations of physical material combinations, we took styrofoam and pine cone models to deconstruct and reconstruct. After simplifying, two different forms combined in a consistent way.
- Inspiration
- The goal is to allow nature to appear and break the traditional boundary that we humans created, separating ourselves from nature. After many physical explorations, the proposal was narrowed down to create an interactive community for humans and water. Also, the reason for naming the staircase Karst is from the Karst terrain, which is famous for solutional caves, with its cave form and the process that acid rain can act with the crushed oyster shell.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Industrial Designer Chi-Hao Chiang, Front View of Karst, 2020.
Image #2: Industrial Designer Chi-Hao Chiang, Side View of Karst, 2020.
Image #3: Industrial Designer Chi-Hao Chiang, Filtration Bags of Karst, 2020.
Image #4: Industrial Designer Chi-Hao Chiang, Handrail of Karst, 2020.
Image #5: Industrial Designer Chi-Hao Chiang, Steps of Karst, 2020.
Video Credits: Architect Zhixian Song, Application of Karst, 2020.
Colors of Karst Water Filtration Staircase
Design Interview about Karst Water Filtration Staircase
We were trying to find a balance and communal community between nature, people, and the environment.
The solutional caves then became the inspiration as water plays a key character connecting all the other elements in this environment.
The solutional caves then became the inspiration as water plays a key character connecting all the other elements in this environment.
The main focus is to find a way to connect the interaction between behaviors of humans and water. The natural movement of humans and water can form a contrast in this piece.
We would like to keep making this design more practical and feasible, then seek any collaboration to make the design come true and help the environment.
It's a semester-long project, about 12 to 14 weeks.
We started from finding inspiration from various combinations of natural materials. In the end, we decided to combine filtering and flowing together for this project.
No, not yet, but we are happy to discuss collaboration to make this design come true.
It began from designing a kind of staircase for any kind of community, then we thought a community of humans and nature can be possible and interesting.
They would be the professors of this studio course, Swati Piparsania and Ariane Harrison.
It's the residents or visitors on Governor's Island.
It uses the local material to be the filter which is crushed oyster shells. This is more sustainable and linked to the local culture and environment.
The design was inspired by Karst terrain, which is famous for solutional caves, with its cave form and the process that acid rain can act with the crushed oyster shell.
They are Rhino 3D, Fusion 360, Keyshot, and 3D printers to help finish this project from scratch.
I think this is how we connected the local material to the environment and also made it sustainable, in the end having an educational project.
It was my teammate Zhixian Song from Pratt Architecture Department. We worked together by combining perspectives of industrial design and architecture.
I think we all took a part of the responsibility to complete the technology.
We did research about the history of Governor's Island to find inspiration and connections between communities and the environment.
The challenge was to find an elegant way to combine the concepts of flowing and filtering, but also to have space for humans to interact.
I thought this design is good in appearance, meaningful for the environment, and educational in its function.
I think is how to work with other expertise and find a good balance to combine different knowledge seamlessly and smoothly.
No, thank you so much.