Drowned Lands

The Drowned Lands studio takes on adaptation of rivers to accommodate more water, community life and ecology in new ways. The studio focuses on material exploration, imagination of new cultural landscapes, and social practice art and design, rather than constraints. New York State and the Army Corps of Engineers are already taking action to re-engineer the principal river of the Drowned Lands—the Wallkill River, a river channel made by farmers to drain a vast wetland. Student’s work centers on adding the dimensions of spatial, material and cultural quality to the project, raising aspirations about the role the remade river might play.