Architecture & Politics

Non-Human Architecture

“Back to the Future” through Oyster-Tecture: Space as Communal or Capitalist

Elizabeth Gale

Together, humans, non-humans and the environment create an ecosystem. Within these “natural” relationships, who creates, transforms, supports, or destroys the ecosystem, and why?

Human Intervention:

Capitalism and Architectural Transformation

Before we think about human intervention in the environment, we have to go back to human connection with the environment. Our shift from environmental steward to environmental owner can be conceptualized in relation to the theory of the Tragedy of the Commons.

Initially conceptualized in relation to shared pastoral fields in the English countryside, the Commons is understood as a shared space in which humans, non-human animals, and the environment are mutually supported for the benefit of greater social and environmental equality and prosperity.2 Fundamentally, the Commons is a space in which there is ecosystem equilibrium, and humans, non-humans, and the environment maintain a relationship of respect.

Discussion of the Tragedy of the Commons via environmental economics. 3

When an imbalanced and inequitable relation is introduced to the Commons, such as capitalism, tragedy occurs. Rather than continuing ecosystem equilibrium, the shared Commons becomes a resource for individual profit, and the relationship between human, non-human, and the environment changes dramatically. 4

Within a capitalist market, humans prioritize their short-term, best economic interests over their role in supporting the larger ecosystem, leading to the exploitation and extinction of ecosystem environments. 5

The Human in the Re-Organized Ecosystem

As a consequence of capitalist relations, the human individual begins to understand themselves as the ultimate force in the ecosystem, opposing the Commons’ natural order of respect and equity.

Illustration of re-defined ecosystem relations, prioritizing the human actor. 6
Commentary on the surviving natural elements within a capitalist, property-based society. 7

Rather than simply being understood as a feature of the agrarian countryside, the Commons is any space that is capable of ecosystem equilibrium with equitable human, non-human, and environmental relations. We exist in the Commons on a daily basis, yet our actions have warped the potential for ecosystem balance and responsibility.

Oyster-Tecture and Non-Human Intervention:

The Oyster as Ecosystem Actor and Architect

The New York Harbor was once a Commons. Initially an architectural oyster reef that provided filtered water, fresh food stores, and environmental resilience and protection to the Indigenous Lenape people, the Harbor was overrun and extinguished by infiltration of colonization, and eventual enduring acts of capitalism. 8

Oyster Houses, South Street and Pike Slip, Manhattan (1937). 9
Oyster Stands in Fulton Market (1870). 10
Oyster shells from oyster “farming”(1860-1920). 11

Historically, oysters were the mediating architectural and communal force in guaranteeing ecosystem stability, growth, and equilibrium in the Harbor.

Colonial capitalism, however, reconfigured the human actor from steward of the oyster to owner and consumer of the oyster, stripping the Harbor’s reef and exploiting the potential for equitable human and non-human collaboration.

Kate Orff, founder of SCAPE Landscape Architecture, is looking to redefine the New York Harbor’s ecosystem around the oyster once again, with the introduction of Oyster-Tecture.12

Oysters in the Past, and Oysters in the Future

To re-introduce the oysters to the Harbor, SCAPE Architects are reimagining the past of the architectural reef.

SCAPE
SCAPE‘s analysis of the Harbor’s past Oyster-Tecture, from 1776.13
SCAPE’s Plan for the Harbor in 2050, with reintroduced Oyster-Tecture.14
A visualization of Oyster-Tecture in action.15

Orff’s Oyster-Tecture, as an act of landscape architecture, will prioritize the needs of the non-human actor, the once-dominant oyster, in order to heal the immediate environment and create an opportunity for future resiliency.

“Oyster-tecture proposes a living reef composed of a woven web of ‘fuzzy rope’ that supports marine growth, generates a 3D landscape mosaic that attenuates waves and cleans millions of gallons of harbor water by harnessing the biotic filtration processes of oyster mussels.”

SCAPE

By prioritizing the oyster’s immediate needs, SCAPE is striving to repair ecosystem communities through the act of reimagining relationships. No peer should be exploited in a shared, common environment.

Illustration of Oyster Prioritization.16
Illustration of Oyster Filtration Function.17
Illustration of Oyster Reef Resiliency and Mediation.18

As a result of this re-imagination, and in many ways rectification, of the human role in the common ecosystem, the re-integrated environment has the opportunity to thrive. In acting for the oyster, Orff’s Oyster-Tecture creates conditions for mutual wellbeing.

Illustration of potential for human, non-human interaction.19
Rendering of reintegrated human, non-human environment.20
Prioritization of the oysters’ survival needs.21

When histories of colonial capitalism are challenged, ecosystems become spaces of mutuality and resilience.

“Built” and “Natural” Environments:

Who creates these environments? Who do they serve?

In thinking about the architectural and communal potential for “built,” natural environments, I reflected on Alison Shotz’ Topographic Iteration IV currently part of the Wellin Museum’s Dialogues Across Disciplines exhibition.

Shotz, Topographic Iteration IV, 2014.

Created through the crumpling, photographing and printing, and re-crumpling of a piece of paper, this piece illustrates the role of construction in the conception of “built” and “natural”environments.22

When we imagine our environments as Common, and our individual human role as integrated within greater ecosystems, we become responsible for the sovereignty and resilience of our fellow non-human peers and our shared environment.

Notes:

  1. Baloncici, Close up shot of one open raw oyster, Photograph, n.d., https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-shot-one-open-raw-oyster-299690081.
  2. Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science 162, no. 3859 (December 1968), https://www.jstor.org/stable/1724745.
  3. MHS AP Environmental, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Illustration Graphic, n.d., https://mhsapes.weebly.com/51-512-reading.html.
  4. Lynch et al., “Transdisciplinary synthesis for ecosystem science, policy and management: The Australian experience,” Science of the Total Environment (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.04.100.
  5. Lynch et al., “Transdiciplinary synthesis,” 12.
  6. Victor M. Ponce, “Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons Revisited or We are All in the Same Boat,” Illustration, n.d., https://ponce.sdsu.edu/tragedy_revisited.html.
  7. Frits Alhefeldt, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Cartoon Illustration, October 16, 2012, https://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/8093644588.
  8. Thomas Hynes, “Aw Shucks: The Tragic History of New York City Oysters,” Untapped New York, n.d. https://untappedcities.com/2022/08/04/history-new-york-oysters/.
  9. Berenice Abbott, Oyster Houses, South Street and Pike Slip, Photograph, 1937. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/62a08ba0-9d94-013a-e101-0242ac110003.
  10. Alfred R. Waud, Oyster Stands in Fulton Market, Print, 1870, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-db1e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.
  11. Oyster shells for oyster “farming,” Photograph, 1860-1920, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-ab0b-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.
  12. Emmett Fitzgerarld, “Oyster-tecture,” 99% Invisible Podcast (podcast), October 31, 2017, https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/oyster-tecture/.
  13. SCAPE, “1776 – South Brooklyn Shellfish Culture,” Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  14. SCAPE, “2050 – Back to the Future,” Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  15. SCAPE, Cityscape Visualization, Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  16. SCAPE, “Life Cycle as Strategy,” Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  17. SCAPE, Oyster Filtration Illustration, Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  18. SCAPE, “Reef Building and Attentuation,” Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  19. SCAPE, “Flupsification,” Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  20. SCAPE, Visualization of Reintegrated Cityscape, Digital Rendering, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  21. SCAPE, Oyster Habitat Visualization, Photograph, https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/.
  22. Alison Hotz, Topographic Iteration IV, Multi-Media Sculpture, 2014, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alyson-shotz-topographic-iteration.

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