New York is my oyster

Oyster-tecture
United Kingdom (New York)

An unlikely hero – the oyster – is set to revitalise New York City’s polluted waterways. To improve the city’s harbour’s water quality, the founder of environmentally focused landscape architecture firm Scape is planning to tap into the mollusc’s natural ability to filter.

Kate Orff’s marine gardening project takes advantage of the oyster’s built-in filtration system. An adult oyster can process up to a massive 50 gallons of water a day, pumping it through their bodies, extracting nutrients and nitrogen pollution. By constructing underwater living reefs made from a woven web of ‘fuzzy rope’ built into a rich three-dimensional landscape mosaic, millions of oysters and blue mussels can settle in and conduct their business. Kate calls this ‘Oyster-tecture’.

Already an over an acre of reef has been restored and, in a few years the harbour’s water quality will be evaluated and the city should greenlight her proposal for a 200-acre marine park in New York Harbour. China and Europe are also interested in implementing Oyster-tecture. Scape’s design-research has expanded to inform multiple ongoing projects, including the large-scale ecological infrastructure proposal Living Breakwaters and our linear waterfront park at Red Hoek Point.

Oyster reef beds could create better habitats for wildlife and even weaken waves to reduce the damage from storm surges. Eventually the oysters could be edible, maybe turning New York back into a destination for the delicacy, as it was in the eighties: “Instead of hot dog stands, oyster carts used to line the streets of Manhattan,” Kate says.

AtlasAction: Learn more about Scape, who create positive change in communities by combining regenerative living infrastructure and new forms of public space.

Written by

Gaby Bastyra (03 September 2015)

Bio

Gaby is a wildlife documentary producer with broadcast credits on BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and PBS.

Project leader

Kate Orff, Founder, Scape

Support the Atlas

We want the Atlas of the Future media platform and our event to be available to everybody, everywhere for free – always. Fancy helping us spread stories of hope and optimism to create a better tomorrow? For those able, we'd be grateful for any donation.

Creative Commons License

Comments

 

Take me somewhere
Close
Take me somewhere
Close
Data Protection Act: LOPD.
In compliance with Organic Law 15/1999, of 13 of December, on Personal Data Protection, and the development of Rules of Procedure, approved by Royal Decree 1720/2007, of 21 of December, Atlas of the Future subscribers may be required to provide Personal Data, which will be included in a file owned by Democratising The Future Society SL. Such file is duly incorporated in the Spanish Data Protection Agency and protected in compliance with the security measures established in the applicable legislation. Subscribers may exercise, at any time, their rights of access, rectification, cancellation and/or opposition regarding their Personal Data. The subscriber shall notice their will, either under written form addressed to Democratising The Future Society SL, Ref. LOPD, Calabria, 10 6-3 08015 - Barcelona (Spain) and/or by e-mail, clicking here. Also, the subscriber shall communicate Atlas of the Future any modifications of their Personal Data stored, so that the information stored by Atlas of the Future remains at all times updated and error-free.
Close
Get World-changing projects and news in your inbox weekly.