WOVEN WILLET GOAT HABITAT
Location: Willets Point, Queens, New York
Critic: Thomas Leeser
In a speculative studio exploring the future of rapid manufacturing technologies, The Woven Willet is composed of biomaterial from drone-aided fiber placement automation. The building itself is a habitat for transgenic “spider-goats” that produce a spider silk protein in their milk that is extracted, refined, and then used in the ever-continuous drone construction process. As the specific needs change, the building is allowed to adapt as the 1,800 goats produce enough silk thread to re-weave the entire structure every three years at a 1,000 thread count surface density. The space, which is grafted onto a busy highway interchange in Queens, currently repurposes dead zones with parks, hiking trails, agriculture, solar collection, and livestock grazing.