From Off-Shoring to Near Shore:
Littoral Landscsapes at Work

Instructor: Azzurra Cox

Large industries once occupied the city of New Bedford one after another, before leaving their legacies as massive idle infrastructure giants - covering the urban fabric by their dry surfaces. This proposal imagines how these existing structures could be converted into other forms and play new roles, with the goal of reanimating the site.
In New Bedford's Harbour (Site 1), PCB (Polychlorinated biphenyl) contaminates the environment from former manufacturing sites. This proposal explores alternative operations to the traditional dredging, in-situ capping into the existing long deep narrow channel. Observing the mega-infrastructures of the lower Harbour, each hold unique qualities that could be reimagined for new positive roles to revive the site.
The Acushnet River Valley (Site 2), 7 miles to the north of the Harbour, would support these alternatives to dredging with raw materials extracted from its landscape. Wetlands with sphagnum moss would be restored on the former golf course for sustainable peat farming - used for manufacturing Granulated Activated Carbon for capping process. Additionally, the supply could provide a larger economic activity, wildlife habitat, improve water quality, and send fertile sediments to the lower site.

Resonating through actions of growing, modifying, and filling, the two sites exchange mass and energy, converted back and forth from the landscape.