New Bedford is the most profitable fishing port in the country but the industry is under threat. We were asked to consider material flows and labor and how they might need to shift in the near future. For my project, I proposed an intentional and performative deconstruction of the hard edge of the waterfront. Starting from a currently underused dock, the waterfront is first given to the community for aquaponics, food trucks, and public space. Over time, parts of the edge are chipped away, falling into the ocean to create habitat for shellfish. The growth of the aquaponics industry and the deconstruction of the waterfront both allows and forces the fishing industry to move inland, making room for the return of coastal salt marshes.
At the mid review, my project was about providing waterfront land for community use and attempting to encourage food production and access through a site dedicated to food growth and consumption. But by the end of the semester, my project changed, increasing in scale and shifting towards a more industrial focus, looking at the material cycles that could be created through waste valorization.
New Bedford has long been a site of extraction, harvesting its resources to send to larger metropolitan areas. The heavy extraction has led to serious draining of New Bedford’s resources, as the act of extraction breaks natural cycles, making it difficult for resources to regenerate. These unsustainable practices started in the era of whaling, but have been carried through to the current fishing industry.
Although New Bedford has been the most profitable fishing port in the country for years, fish populations are actually in serious decline. Fish stock is shrinking due to overfishing and ocean acidification. Current fishing practices are incredibly destructive and do not leave much room even for protected fish to regenerate. The only reason profits remain so high is scallops, which made up 84% of the profit in 2020. Given that information, it is unsurprising that the city and much of its surrounding area are food deserts, as scallops are not a practical or affordable food source. The industry is also shrinking overall – as fish populations decline, so do job opportunities for New Bedford’s fishermen. Fewer boats are going out each year and unemployment in New Bedford is currently 7% (national unemployment is 4.8% and Massachusetts unemployment is 5.2%).
My project hopes to decrease reliance on unsustainable industrial systems and increase access to food, making the production both visible and participatory. The result is a more local circular economy that encourages waste valorization and will hopefully provide inspiration and experience for other communities who wish to do the same.
My intervention focuses on aquaponics, a system of food production that does not require arable land and can efficiently produce both fish and vegetables using less water and with less pollution than traditional farming methods. The two parts of the system support each other, with the fish providing nutrients to the plants, and the plants cleaning the water for the fish. The supportive cycle directly addresses the natural cycles broken by the existing industries, where “waste” that could have supported other ecosystems actually becomes waste.
Starting from an empty dock, I propose an intentional and performative deconstruction of the hard concrete edge. Pieces that fall into the ocean become habitat for shellfish, large solid pieces are saved for building material, and pieces that are too irregular or small are crushed and recycled into new concrete. Shellfish harvested from the debris are unsafe to eat because of the pollution in the harbor, but the shells can be crushed and added to the recycled concrete. The recycled concrete is used to build aquaponic pools.
The pools are built, deconstructed, and rebuilt so they can move with the retreating waterfront and to help develop techniques of both building for deconstruction and deconstruction that can be applied elsewhere in the world as cities retreat. The constant construction and deconstruction also serves as a reminder of the need to respond to climate change. And as sea levels rise, the softer edges and varying heights of the pools will contribute to the coastline becoming a salt marsh, which will help mitigate the effect of future storms. And once the waterfront becomes too submerged, the aquaponics can move inland entirely, as unlike commercial fishing, it is an industry that does not require waterfront access.
The site goes from an empty dock to a lively one catering to both community and industry. Construction and industrial production happen alongside spaces for community gardens and gathering. Large scale pools are used for heavy food production, which smaller ones create spaces for community members to participate and learn. Raised platforms for viewing and gathering bring people to the site to see where their food is coming from and buy or eat it in view of where it was grown. But as sea levels rise and the site is deconstructed, it becomes a space mostly for nature with some paths remaining for visitors.Meanwhile in Acushnet, construction begins to remove the high-hazard dam holding the New Bedford Reservoir. The land around the reservoir is transformed to support wild rice agriculture, adding to the local food production.
The hills transform from unused areas zoned for future residential use to agricultural terraces that can attract improve the area for recreation both visually and physically.
Together, New Bedford and Acushnet can contribute to an annual cycle of local food production with the aquaponic pools and the rice-fish agricultural terraces.
In this 3D printed and CNC-routed model, I explored the textured and spaces created by the acts of construction and deconstruction.
