MARSILLY, FR
2023

master’s thesis
EPFL ENAC
Jo Taillieu, Yves Pedrazzini - professors
Axel Chevroulet - senior scientist

North of La Rochelle, the Baie de l'Aiguillon bears witness to a structurally invasive past camouflaged in its shallow waters. 400 hectares of abandoned oyster beds locally known as crassats, remnants of the shellfish industry, lie in the intertidal zone. In recent years, this anthropized space favoured the incursion of a non-native species, the Japanese oyster, which prevents other molluscs from developing; as a result, the bay's biodiversity has been impoverished on many levels.

Decades after the first signals of neglect, a territorial program was finally put in place over the last five years, co-financed by the European Commission and the French government, to restore and enhance habitats of ecological importance in the Baie de l'Aiguillon. In the spirit of this program, the Énoncé and the Master's project both look at the conflicts of use at the interface, between terrestrial ecosystems and the open sea in order to harness their architectural potentials.

Home with what remains continues the investigation into the reversal of intertidal colonisation by humans. The project's priority is to make the most of what already exists, both at sea and on land, considering rural ports as an (almost) ready-to-use infrastructure for cleaning and distribution. A sensible itinerary for end-of-life materials extracted from the bay has been devised in conjunction with the creation of a single new building onsite: a sorting-house whose form and program mirror the sequence in which piles and shells – among other debris – are removed from the silt. A home for a new generation of sea gardeners, whose right of occupancy is established through practices of care. The plan is for all the buildings – some of which will be transitional – to be involved in cleaning up and then maintaining the area. While workers continue tending to the sea, the waste extraction appendage moves elsewhere on the coast to attend other threatened maritime ecologies. A virtuous circle of care and homemaking.

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