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Re-Negotiating Anthropocene
Architecture Exploring the Co-Existence of Living Species From Oyster shell waste using Seawater Material & Construction Techniques by Aishwarya Garg
    Our rapidly changing environment is prompting diverse professionals to react and adapt. Our now unstable climate is beginning to warm at alarming rates, the culprit of which is no “natural” process but rather human activity. Carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, extinction of species and wide scale natural resource extraction are all signs of this unbalanced modification of our planet. It is time we focus beyond human needs and consider "othered ecologies" and their coexistence within our ecosystem.

    In Gordon Kipping's fall studio, the research was developed to address future climatic effects of sea level rise and carbon sequestering materials, exploring innovative research and waste for sustainable building solutions.  We aimed to redesign Le Corbusier’s Maison Domino concept to meet today's environmental challenges. Proposed a new building typology prototype promoting coexistence between species using sustainable materials. The final test was to create an assembly using materials and a prototype that can be transformed into a 50 floor high rise structure and fit within our growing demands. The design featured a grid of load-bearing columns offset from the façade, supporting floor slabs and a stair, allowing for diverse and quickly deployable housing options using standardized concrete construction modified for contemporary needs.


Material 1 ‘OYSTER CRETE’ :
Finding potential in the city’s food waste

    In developing a new construction method, the research was led by historically repressed material ecologies. New York City produces a couple million pounds of food waste per year, most of which ends in landfills, where it decomposes and produces greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming. Most of the food is still considered edible, and besides that contains several resources that can be reappropriated for other uses. The project addresses the oyster shell waste problem by re-integrating it into the construction processes, providing structures for cohabitation and mutual growth between humans and oysters, and relates it to its long lost history with New York City.

    The Big Apple was once the Big Oyster - New York Harbor was rich with oysters as far back as when Lenape Native Americans lived here. The Dutch once called Ellis Island, the Little Oyster Island, and Liberty Island the Great Oyster Island.

    Oysters were an integral part of New York’s local marine ecosystem that helped keep the water clean through filtration and promoted biodiversity, but were largely wiped out by pollution and exploitative harvesting practices. Oysters thrived in the brackish waters around New York Harbor. At one point there were about 350 square miles of oyster reefs in the waters around what is today the New York metro area, containing nearly half of the world’s oyster population. As for the millions of shells New Yorkers produced during those years of heavy oyster consumption, they were used to pave roads, crushed into mortar paste to fuel the building boom (Trinity Church, for example, was built with oyster shell-mortar paste), or burned for lime (a practice which was eventually outlawed due to its unfortunate acrid smell). By 1927, the last of the New York City oyster beds were officially closed for business. New York City’s oysters had become too contaminated to eat due to over harvesting of oysters and pollution in the harbor.

    Oystercrete, a biomaterial developed from oyster shell waste, is explored as an alternative to traditional cement. Rich in calcium oxides, a valuable building compound. The process for making Oystercrete from oyster shell lime involves extracting calcium oxide by burning and crushing the oyster shells, which is combined with water, sand and air. This substitution in the material composition and utilizing waste is an approach towards a less carbon intensive building material. This not only addresses the problem of waste, but also uses the life of the species to filter the impurities of New York water while restoring its shoreline.

Material 2 Seacrete:
The foundation and other structural aspects had to be taken into consideration

    ‘Seacrete’ - a sustainable cement-like material, formed by electrolysis of seawater, causing dissolved minerals to accrete onto the cathode and create a thick limestone layer. This process also absorbs carbon dioxide from the solution. This material can be used for building structures or creating artificial 'electrified reefs' that support coral and sea-life regeneration. Seacrete coral reefs transform barren and dying reef areas into vibrant ecosystems within a few years, even in poor water conditions where natural recovery is impossible. Seacrete technology, which grows corals 2-10 times faster and at a lower cost, accelerates coral settlement, growth, healing, survival, and resistance to environmental stresses such as high temperature, sediment, and pollution. This creates optimal conditions for marine life and has potential applications in medicine and agriculture.

    Seacrete structures quickly mitigate damage in destroyed reef areas and stabilize loose sediment, fostering underwater environmental improvement. Benefits of Seacrete material technology include coral reef restoration, protection against global warming, marine construction, adaptation to sea level rise and sustainable aquaculture. These technologies were developed through physical experiments and comparisons with commonly used materials, demonstrating their efficacy and sustainability for various environmental applications.

The Prototype Design  


   The prototype for Hudson Harbor, located in the middle of the water, situates itself as a site that fosters the growth and development of its own primary building material resource, oysters, from which the design leverages Oystercrete and Seacrete. Seacrete provides structural strength and durability in a marine environment, essential for withstanding water currents, waves, and weather conditions. At the same time reviving the coral reefs and oyster restoration. Whereas Oystercrete on the other hand is used to enhance the internal structure of the prototype. Though some standard concrete may be used, Oyster shells improve its durability and resilience in a marine environment. In conjunction, their natural composition enhances the concrete's resistance to chloride ion penetration and reduces the risk of corrosion for embedded steel reinforcements.

    Are buildings designed to be permanent, what is the impact of aging of materials and its response to the cycle of time and climate change?

    This project hopes to raise questions about the cyclical process of material life and use, and the role of humans in sustaining the cycle.


“In my beginning is my end. In succession Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place.

Is an open field, or a factory, or a bypass, Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth…”

- T.S Eliot (Four Quartets)

Bibliography
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sea-level-could-rise-at-least-6-meters/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/nyregion/new-york-today-the-big-oyster.html#:~:text=The%20Big%20Apple%20was%20once,Island%20the%20Great%20 Oyster%20Island
- https://www.vitalchoice.com/articles/food-facts/how-oysters-built-new-york-city
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061820330294
- https://www.globalcoral.org/biorock-coral-reef-marine-habitat-restoration/
Running on Cargo