This project introduces a “Metabolic Resistance” strategy within the Ashokan Reservoir watershed, a landscape historically scarred by state-imposed erasure and restrictive water protection laws. Rather than traditional development, the design proposes a Forest Farming Metabolic Hub—a lightweight spatial intervention that utilizes the forest’s microclimate for high-value biological cultivation.
The architecture organizes a choreography of decay across four stages: winter timber stand improvement, shiitake mushroom inoculation for economic autonomy, the creation of Hügelkultur mounds for soil remediation, and the fabrication of mycelium bio-bricks for local housing. Structurally, the building employs a hybrid system of defensive concrete and thermal rammed earth to withstand the Catskills’ harsh climate. By mastering the rate of biological decay, the project bypasses construction bans and transforms the forest’s metabolic waste into a tool for community sovereignty. It is an architecture that does not just occupy the land but breathes, rots, and heals with it.
