Shifting Shelter (2025) by Meredith Magness responds to a dystopia where existing towns along the lower Mississippi Basin are absorbed by the very hydrology that they perpetually engineer. This modular system of inhabitable barges proposes a transferral of collective life onto an archipelagic flotilla, serving presently as the frontline arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during low tides. When the water rises, the barges moor along the cobblestone banks, transforming into a transient, elevated porch that hovers between land and water—tethered by tide or tugboat. Rooted in Southern porch culture, each barge becomes an adaptive vessel for social ritual —spaces for gathering, repairing, storytelling, and continuity that travel across the alluvial plain.
