Project Title: Motion Registration
Location: Tokyo Bay, Japan
Built, Unbuilt or Under Construction: Unbuilt
Project Year: Spring 2009
University: University of Pennsylvania
Studio Instructor: Nanako Umemoto and Neil Cook

Project description:
The region surrounding Tokyo Bay is in the midst of a major transition. Its industrial power plants, factories, and manufacturing facilities are transforming into residential housing and places of leisure and recreation. Reflecting these changes, while some populations in the area are shrinking, others are growing and creating an unprecedented demand for power. Tokyo Bay’s currents hold the potential to generate the energy needed to sustain this new population growth. This proposal seeks to harness the bay’s tidal energy through a flexible structure that can expand or contract to meet future energy demands. Located in the most dynamic portion of the bay where navy ports, housing, and national parks mark the bay’s southern threshold, the system is engineered to support itself, as well as new development on top of it. As it registers motion and growth, the structure reflects the kinetic qualities of the bay and sustains each new community with clean, renewable energy.