SWELL 2026 sculpture exhibition takes place on September 10th - 20th
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
- Harrison Ford.
I seek not to improve, but to reinvent the ways of architecture. I see a future where we work with Earth, not against it.
Hydro-mechanical architecture is an untapped realm. I am exploring how architecture can work with the flow of water and the changing of tides not to power our buildings, but to move and transform them.
The concept of hydromechanics seeks to surpass the efficiency and carbon neutrality of electric powered factories by not using electricity at all. Fully automated factories, buildings that morph, shape-shift and transform with the tide; these are just a few of the radical visions I see for our future.
Melting Man embodies these principals in the conceivable form of sculptural art. Within its whimsy nature it holds
many layers of meaning and motif.
Melting Man is a large-scale, hydro-mechanical sculpture that operates using the simple logic of a push puppet, re-imagined through tidal forces. Structurally, the figure is held upright by a system of internal cords kept in tension by a counterweight. When tension is maintained, the statue stands erect and legible as a human form.
Instead of a hand-activated trigger like you find with push-puppets, the transformation of form is triggered by tidal fluctuations. A ballast is positioned beneath the sculpture’s pedestal within the plinth. At low tide, the ballast hangs freely, using its weight to maintain tension in the cords, keeping the figure ridged and erect. As the tide rises, the ballast is engulfed by the ocean, losing its wight, causing the cords to slacken. When the cords lose their tension and the melting man loses his rigidity, he collapses under his own weight.
As tides rise, man falls.
Reform.
Refuse.
Recalibrate.