Tutors: Chris Barton, Richard Naish.
Cox’s Bay is one of three permanently unswimmable Auckland beaches. A research centre, restaurant, wharf, and parasitic oyster reefs clean up the bay by cultivating sacrificial oysters that suck up and store toxins. Over time, the architecture becomes dirtier, while the surrounding environment becomes cleaner.
The environmental strategy draws ideas from Scape’s speculative project, Oyster-tecture. Part of the 2009 MoMA exhibition called Rising Currents develops adaptation strategies for New York City in the face of climate change and sea level rise.
The site at Westmere is not dissimilar to New York. Questions are addressed through bioremediation and sea level projections using the best scientific modelling available (Projection to 2150 (medium confidence), SSP2-4.5 + VLM). Developed through LCAQuick, the building is carbon-positive through landscape, structural and passive strategies.
The position is bold and speculative, and its genealogies are drawn from Archigram and Superstudio. Unlike the imaginative precedents of the past, this new speculation is deeply grounded in the logic of science and technology. This is an architecture of here and now.
Approach
Long Section 1:100 A1
Cross Section 1:100 A1
Climate Resilience
Embodied Carbon
Location Plan 1:1000 A2
Floor Plan 1:200 A3
Model 1:200
