Designed by Gena Wirth, with Alex Chohlas-Wood and Ben Mendelsohn, their 'Protective Ecologies: Building Resilience in Jamaica Bay' proposal for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas was recently announced as one of the selected entries. Their concept explores how constructed ecosystems could function as coastal infrastructure in the severely damaged neighborhoods of Jamaica Bay and the Rockaways. More images and architects' description after the break.
Ongoing restoration work underscores this idea – the Army Corps Yellow Bar Hassock dredge island expansion provides one model for transforming the struggling ecosystems of the Bay while re-purposing waste streams, filtering water, and building habitat.
Critical to the proposal is the consideration of the Bay and its surrounding neighborhoods as an interrelated ecosystem – one island, one dune, or one reef will not protect the shoreline from Sandy-scale damage. Protective Ecologies proposes a hybrid and overlaid set of strategies, hard and soft, man-made and natural, suggestive of new and resilient models for living with the water.
Their work is exhibited at MoMA PS1: Expo NY, an exploration of ecological challenges in the context of the economic and socio-political instability of the early 21st century. It is located at the Rockaway MoMA PS1 VW Dome 2, along with other resiliency-centric programming.
