Halokinesis Machine

Studio Theodore Spyropoulos

Tutors Apostolos Despotidis, Octavian Mihai Gheorghiu, Hanjun Kim

Team Kay Mashiach, Maya Mashiach, Zhen Jia, Zhicheng Yang, Stephanie Di Gironimo

Halokinesis is an architectural endeavour that utilizes salt, a universal material, to re-balance the coral bleaching environments in many different locations of our planet. As suggested in our title - Halokinesis - derived from the magical ability to move salt with one’s mind, we explore salt crystallization’s phenomenology by harnessing its powers. 

Our research centres on a global commodity - salt - by appropriating the origins of its production processes. Analysis of this ubiquitous element revealed an inherent nature of supertemporal growth, requiring us to elicit interventions through controlling behavioural propagation. As salt is seen as a keystone to many global ecological processes, we considered the circulation and movement of global salt bodies. Salt tectonics and crystallization are typically referred to as existing within the "geological time scale", in our global history. 

Halokinesis relies on time coupled with a responsive scaffold and growing crystals to achieve strength and formations. By implementing a cyclical system of crystallized agents that rehabilitate coral reefs through the introduction of higher salinity levels, we give agency to the scaffold to determine most optimal formations. When the agents find their most optimal region, they harvest salt by encouraging crystallization on the spicule scaffold itself. After enough salt is crystallized and the agents are generally bound to one another in ‘iceberg’ formations, they transport through a self-propulsion mechanism to a nearby at-risk coral site. The detection of the coral reefs by the agents is translated into further positioning and a vertical formation making system.  

This formation is catalysed by coral protection inputs: topography, bleaching colours, ocean current vectors, and sunlight, then deciphered into an optimal organizational strategy. Generated by the swarming with the local organisms and the terrain, the breaking of crystallized spicules of the columnar tectonic organizations, result in a gradual salt distribution and a necessary rebalancing of saline levels. Over time, these salt formations are eroded, further distributing salt and protecting coral respawning from impending wave disruption.