Bridgeport, CT has fallen victim to the harms of an uncertain economy and environment. However, uncertainty has the unique ability to produce a coexistence of fragility and resilience. Moving through financial hardships and detrimental pollution, the community has persevered and formed local networks of stability. The ecosystem of Pleasure Beach is much like the community of Bridgeport as it simultaneously formed a new supportive natural infrastructure, not entirely native, nor pastoral, but one that reflected all of Bridgeport’s history and growth despite conditions of uncertainty.
Weave is a network of structures located on Pleasure Beach that nurtures the connection between the human residents and non-human neighbors by making the similarity in their needs visible.The structures rely on a delicate but strong system of weaving to create opportunities for interaction, rest, and habitation. Each structure is catered to the specificity of the four microclimates within Pleasure Beach working with the common needs of water, sun, shade, and plants. Connecting each structure is a proposed path that brings human visitors through each microclimate to illuminate the diversity of the symbiotic relationships that life on the island has with each other and the land. Weave is ultimately a temporary infrastructure that acts as a catalyst for deeper unity between the human and non-human populations of Bridgeport in order to foster a long term connection.
