Yufei Li
This proposal is grounded in the premise that restoring Lake Ronkonkoma must operate simultaneously as ecological repair and social reconnection. Stormwater runoff carrying nutrients and pollutants enters the lake directly, contributing to declining water quality, ecological imbalance, and the gradual loss of access for both human and nonhuman life. As the health of the lake deteriorates, so too does the community’s trust in and attachment to the landscape.
The design responds through a phased framework of small, adaptive interventions that make restoration visible, participatory, and spatially engaging. A series of modular follies is positioned along the lake trail, forming an ecological and social playground that invites gathering, movement, play, and reflection. These structures do not function only as amenities, but as interfaces between people and environment, supporting habitat, native vegetation, and moments of environmental learning. Paired with landscape-based water purification systems, including planted filtration areas and runoff-buffering edges, the follies turn hidden ecological processes into public experience. In this way, the project reimagines restoration as a collective and multispecies process, where environmental recovery and social life unfold together over time.
