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UN-SINK
Redefining Ground Level Through Celebratory Water Spaces

Cornell University, Fall 2023, Studio
In collaboration with Veronica Paulon
Instructor: Farzin Lotfi-Jam
Architecture MasterPrize 2025 - Best of Best

Indonesia’s coastal islands face a climate crisis, with large-scale land submersion projected by 2100. Jakarta has sunk up to 5 meters in the past few decades due to unequal water access rooted in colonial-era water infrastructure, forcing communities to install thousands of illegal groundwater pumps. These, along with heavy industrial pumping, have severely depleted the aquifers, accelerating land subsidence.

UN-SINK proposes to mitigate land subsidence-induced flooding with three main goals:

- Drastically minimizing groundwater pumping by providing universal access to clean water through rain catchment, treatment, and public fountains.

- Restoring Jakarta to its original land levels by artificially replenishing aquifers through Injection Water Wells retrofitted from previous groundwater pumps.
- Integrating engineering response with local water rituals, fostering a renewed relationship with water.

The proposed system of four interventions addresses land subsidence, water access, and cultural continuity by merging technical infrastructure with public space, making hydrological processes visible in everyday urban life.  Bridging speculation and reality, the project situates climate adaptation within spatial and infrastructural decolonization, reimagining the city’s relationship to land and water.

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