To be traveling through the middle of a city as great, historic and forlorn as Istanbul, and yet to feel the freedom of the open sea — that is the thrill of a trip along the Bosphorus.

Orhan Pamuk

My project is focused on the Bosphorus and its relationships with the city. They seem to be as liquid as the waters of the Strait. The way to explore it a floating laboratory was set up. Since the Strait is sensed in motion, it’s always on the move. Its goal is to investigate continuity and connectivity of City- Strait links and make new connections between these two.

An old barge was converted into living space occupied by members of Autonomus floating community. Thinking of the Community as a small city is a useful way to understand its organization. .The Community

tries to use the freedom of the Sea which means it falls outside the legislation of existing countries. It’s a new society of sea pioneers. In their quest for independence they reveal an important fact: legislation is not absolute. The laws on water are different from those on land. If you build on water you come up against issues needing clarification and conflicting interests. These uncertainties ultimately lead to new regulations. But until these rules are in place, the strangest things are imaginable.

Bosphorus Laboratory is part of the Autonomous floating community

Laboratory mission The Lab’s primary mission is urban space reactivation ashore and at sea alike all along the Bosphorus. Set of experiments are to be done to work out rules and tools for such urban interventions to be implemented. The central element of the Lab is its Activating Research Module (ARM) interacting with environment.

Laboratory organization When fully manned, The Lab is home to around 30 personnel. At the top is the Lab’s Visionary, who is ultimately responsible for accomplishment of its assigned mission. The Lab’s individual functions are handled by several lab’s unit.

Lab units

1. Activating Research Module (ARM) unit The Activating unit works onto the mobile Research Module. This unit is in charge of construction, transformation, disembarking and landing the module, charging, moving, and controlling fixed and variable module components.

2. Operations unit The Operations unit is responsible for collecting, cataloging, analyzing and distributing information vital to the accomplishment of the Lab’s missions. Heading this very important department is the Lab’s Operations Master.

3. Communications unit The Communications Department sends and receives messages to and from other labs and shore facilities via various sophisticated electronic equipment. Such equipment includes computers, satellites, ets.

4. Navigation unit The head is a Navigation Master. He briefs the Lab’s members on the position of the Lab, the direction of travel and approves places of mooring for urban interventions.