roundAround

roundAround proposed connecting Amsterdam's Marineterrein and the city center without building anything fixed. Instead, a fleet of autonomous boats would act as a dynamic bridge, able to carry hundreds of passengers an hour across the waterway. The project was a collaboration between the MIT Senseable City Lab and the AMS Institute.

To make a moving bridge work, individual vessels had to approach, align, and lock together on open water while compensating for wakes and cross-currents. I prototyped the omnidirectional thruster layout and interlocking hull geometry that let boats slide sideways, pivot in place, and link into continuous floating chains, monitored through a live telemetry link.

Full-scale deployments in Amsterdam proved the concept both for passenger crossings and for reconfigurable canal infrastructure. More on the roundAround website.