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katie albertucci
Inter 10

MIST city// Molecular Irrigation in the Situationist Terrain

Reinventing an idea of a Situationist environment within the context of the Rub Al Khali desert, where fluctuation is allowed through the creation of events. The social interactions within the city are opportunistic which are actuated by the macro climatic conditions that allow creation and collection fog.

These environmental effects and inherent conditions of life in the desert have influenced the social and architectural construct of two network oasis cities in particular; Al Ain on the border with Oman in the east of UAE and Liwa crescent in the southern region of country. The organization of the two oases partially derived from the differences in sourcing water. While Al Ain relied on the regular supply of water from Omani mountains, the Liwa settlements relied on the opportunistic underground fresh water resources, which created a network and dictated the route when traveling through the desert.

MIST city aims at creating a hybrid model of urbanization, that takes inspiration from the Situationist theory of derive and placing it in the context of the UAE desert which allows for the extraction of the Bedouin logic for navigating and sustaining life in the desert. The classes of the city travel by different means and zones of comfort, which affects the trajectory of their paths. MIST city’s inhabitants will explore the fluctuation between the spaces in order to work with the existing landscape of the dunes.