The Lowline Lab is a long-term open laboratory and technical exhibit designed by Signe Nielsen of Mathews Nielsen to test and showcase how the Lowline will grow and sustain plants underground. The experiments are done in an environment that simulates the conditions that plants will have under the ground.
Built inside an abandoned market on the Lower East Side, just two blocks from the site of the proposed future Lowline, the Lowline Lab includes a series of controlled experiments in an environment mimicking the actual Lowline site.
Co-Founder James Ramsey, his team at Raad Studio,and Korea-based technology company Sunportal designed and installed optical devices which track the sun throughout the sky every minute of every day, optimizing the amount of natural sunlight they are able to capture. The sunlight is then distributed into the warehouse through a series of protective tubes, directing full spectrum light into a central distribution point. A solar canopy, designed and constructed by engineer Ed Jacobs, then spreads out the sunlight across the space, modulating and tempering the sunlight, providing light critical to sustain the plant life below.
The Lowline Lab landscape is composed of over 3,000 plants and dozens of unique varieties, spread across 1,000 square feet. The Lab gives the opportunity to study plant life in the same type of environment as the future Lowline, and will help determine which types of plants will grow best underground.
