Natural Connections

So for the SSEF competition, I started looking at the cycle of tides along the East coast, in the Bay of Fundy. The phenomenon occurs twice a day where an area is drained completely and then flooded with water.

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick

Flooded conditions from staircase to site; Drained condition looking onto staircase

I'll be using this feature to inform my design. I wanted to design a raised walkway at the base of the Hopewell rocks that could be accessed from the ground plane but transformed into a floating pathway when the area is flooded.

I'm currently looking at two aspects of nature to help me design.

Human joints

I'm looking at joints since I'm dealing with pivoting connections and hinges to see what joint would work best with my design. The below drawing just illustrates where I am currently in terms of the design and the stairs feature (being able to flatten out when floating). This is probably what I'll be focusing on the most. How has nature designed joints and connections that I can use to influence my design?

As well I'm considering the formation of sedimentary rock as a way to generate the form... since I'm still debating on what it should look like and I figured I could draw from the surrounding site (the rocks where you can see the layers where the water has eroded them)

The layered nature of sedimentary rocks...or stepped rock formation

So I guess that's it. I'm starting to focus on generating a form and hammering out the connections details.