Atelier Marko Brajovic

Amphibious: Living Between Water and Land in the Amazon looks into collaborative strategies of different amphibious organisms and human waterfront settlements at three interconnected levels— real and imagined. First, the biological strategies of the most successful Amazonian organisms that adapt to changing conditions between water and land; second, the ingenious architectural solutions found in human settlements that organize living in the liquid boundary environment; and third, a conceptual project of an amphibious floating village for the Anthropocene, consisting of self-organizing and regenerative off-grid units that connect synergistically with the Amazonian metabolism. The Amazon is a liquid landscape where boundaries between land and water move constantly, dramatically influencing the biotic and abiotic environment. From ancestral times, humans learned to adapt to transforming landscapes by living in highly organized societies. In both human and non-human instances, the survival strategy is consistent: cooperation and interdependence.

Image 1 – How will we live together?
The Amazon rainforest operates as a resilient superorganism where millions of organisms live together, cooperate and co-evolve, creating structural conditions for life.
Learning from amphibious organisms, ancestral indigenous riverside architecture, we need to envision such intelligence and design humans tomorrow through that perspective in symbiosis with all other species.
Amazon is a natural high tech laboratory of the future, the most advanced and complex ecosystem, where we can learn from and apply that knowledge (functional, behavioural, structural) to our future architecture, villages and cities that can live in harmony with the changing conditions of the Amazon environment, as much create models for other global regions subject to eventual flooding due to climate crises.
We will live together, with all non-human species in an ecologically conscious world.
Nature teaches us about symbiotic interconnected and interdependent relationships where collaboration is the essence for survival of humanity synchronized with the dynamics of the biosphere.

Image 2 – Sneak peek of the project
Amazon is a liquid landscape where boundaries between land and water move constantly, influencing dramatically the biotic and abiotic environment.
Depending on a water annual tide, rivers and lakes change completely the environment where humans and all species adapt to changing conditions.
From ancestral times, humans learned how to adapt to transforming landscapes, using the energy that flows through the system, between water and land. Floating architecture and agroecological practices manifests a highly efficient symbiosis with the rainfall seasons environment changing patterns.
In the same way, numerous other species are organizing themselves in cooperative colonies and symbiotic relations between different organisms, creating resilient conditions for life.
In both cases (humans and non humans) the survival strategy is the same: cooperation and interdependence.
For more than a decade we have been researching floating architecture and biomimetic models in symbiotic organisms, together with his architect team, biologists and his students in the Amazon rainforest. Research, models, education and commercial projects in the Amazon will be presented as work in progress laboratory in the Amphibious exhibition. 

Vento Leste

Institution, clients and partners: Architectural Association Visiting School Amazon (AAVSA)
Program: Architectural Association School of Architecture

Mamori Community Floating Library
Institutions: Goethe Institut and Prince Claus Fund

Creative Laboratory of the Amazon (LCA)
Initiative by: Amazonia 4.0

Ceremonial House
Donation for: Ashaninka indigenous people

Mirante Madada
Client: Mirante do Gavião - Amazon Lodges

Riverside education
Institution: Fundação Almerinda Malaquias

Science Museum of the Amazon (MuCA)
Institution: MuCA

Native Village
Client: Aldeia Global

Araquém Alcântara expedition
Client: Vento Leste
Production: Atelier Marko Brajovic team
Creative Director: Marko Brajovic
Project Director: Bruno Bezerra
Project Designer: Guilherme Giantini
Content production: May Shinzato
Graphic design: Barbara Helena Morais
Biomimicry consultancy: Alessandra Araujo
Material system consultancy: Nacho Marti