Catching Fog | Bologna, Italy | Unit 21 | 2026

How do we design for a boundaryless environment? Set in the fog-dense Po River Valley, “Catching Fog” translates fluid atmospheric phenomena into permanent architectural mass. It abandons rigid Cartesian intrusion for boundaries derived directly from environmental fluidity. A custom Arduino ultrasonic apparatus generates real water vapour, which is captured and analyzed by a YOLO computer-vision AI. The algorithm’s struggle to define hard edges within a fading mist generates raw spatial data. A Grasshopper pipeline then extrudes this data, freezing the fluid’s temporal motion into a 3D structural matrix. The resulting architecture is an elevated walkway, research centre, and multi-species avian habitat. The dense core of the mist translates into solid datum for human occupation, while the diffuse boundaries become a porous structural lattice tailored for nesting birds. Because its form shares the fundamental fluid nature of the site’s atmosphere, the project achieves true spatial coexistence, breathing actively with the shifting weather.

Atmospheric Coexistence A cinematic visualization of the fluid-derived habitat within the Po Valley fog. It demonstrates true spatial coexistence, where the porous architectural lattice breathes with the shifting weather and endemic avian ecology.

Analogue Fluid Solver A custom Arduino-controlled apparatus generating real fluid dynamics at a table-top scale. This physical recording provides the raw, unpredictable spatial data that directly drives the architectural massing.

Mist to Mass This composite film reveals the computational methodology. A custom YOLO AI algorithm extracts boundaries from the physical mist, which are then processed via Grasshopper to parametrically generate the final fluid-derived architectural massing.

Data Translation The animation illustrates the programmatic translation of the AI confidence gradient. Dense fog data extrudes into the stable human datum, while loose fog boundaries form the elevated, porous structural lattice for the bird habitat.

Material & Light The final path-traced simulation verifies the fluid-derived architecture under clear environmental conditions. It demonstrates how the porous structural lattice and materiality actively interact with natural sunlight and the surrounding ecology.