Christianna Bennett

ARCH-4980.2 | Julia Watson, Assistant Professor

DEVELOPING BIOCULTURAL HORIZONS
A Regenerative Marine Landscape in Alaska

CHRISTIANNA BENNETT

With the onset of globalization, our ability to identify with “place” is quickly eroding. The relentless influx of virtual technology is creates an always-at-hand access to alternate realities in which a majority of humanity now resides. In devices such as telephones and computers, our minds are invisibly wired to horizons beyond that of a physical landscape and yet, materials in our physical surroundings are quickly falling apart.

By reinterpreting and reforming land as a malleable, infrastructural device we can begin creating cultural dialogues that connect people back to existing ecologies. Small communities are an ideal platform for understanding these relationships, where developing low-impact and indigenous interventions readily mold themselves to intricate cultural systems to complex ecological fabrics.

This Thesis explores the eroding barrier island condition at Shishmaref, Alaska, where a system of jetties will be situated in the tidal delta zone between two migrating land masses. The system, mediating between land and water, will begin to stitch the eroding landscape back to health. By implementing a system of productive fish ponds and flexible, land-gathering structures, the intervention aims to support the small, indigenous community by reinstating a traditional practice for managing the surrounding ecology, taking inspiration from cultural mythology and local biological relationships to bring forth new, sustainable cultural and ecological horizons in the marine landscape.

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