The Brooklyn Navy Yard, a heavily industrialized site that has become victim of its topological history,
requires a dramatic change in order to claim its resilience and accommodate future industrial growth. By assessing the current shift in industrial production typologies of the maritime industry, the site can be transformed into a creative hub that brings together river transport, advanced maritime fabrication and material integration and research.
     

One of the Navy Yard’s greatest problems is attributed to the lack of infrastructural integration with city and water, as well as the fragmentation of existing tenants in terms of cooperative research and production. By focusing on the development of three main nodes of transportation, fabrication and research, our proposal seeks to explore the emergence of reconfigurability in the age of new machines, moving away from an industrial society of mass production towards one of cultural production and mass customization. 

    

In order to maximize the efficiency of production as well as to foster the creation of physical and intellectual capital, the Navy Yard would require the development of a novel typology of buildings, one that allows a deep integration of architects, fabricators, material scientists and product engineers into a collective web of knowledge which can in turn be plugged into the emerging public infrastructure of New York City.