WINNER OF A 2021 CANADIAN STUDENT IN ARCHITECT AWARD

This project proposes a reflection on the reuse of abandoned offshore oil platforms, as well as a well-developed architectural solution at different scales of experience. The duality between industrial and natural landscapes – as well as the potential of a repeated typology for the rehabilitation of this type of infrastructure – are topics of particular relevance in our time when we are abandoning fossil fuels and leaving behind the infrastructure of this kind. extraction. -Jury comment

Fact 1: Hundreds of the approximately 1,862 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have been abandoned. Second fact: Between 1932 and 2020, Louisiana has lost 5,000 km2 of coastal farmland. Idea: move and consolidate some of the abandoned platforms off the coast of Louisiana and reuse them as food production centers and experimental islands in a place where previously cultivated land has eroded into the sea.

The mechanical landscape thesis considers the transformation of structures designed to extract the natural resource of petroleum into islands that simultaneously produce a wide range of crops and boost the economy by offering a range of new destinations for day visitors. Floating platforms are moved, anchored and, in some cases, stacked; in others, the juxtaposition of several shells creates larger surfaces. Three “islands” are established nearby: one for mariculture and one for agriculture, with a desalination plant located between them and serving both.

Agricultural operations at Maricultural Island include an algae development pond, rice cultivation, and fish hatchery, with a chute for releasing mature fish into the sea. At a lower level, tourists can purchase produce. fresh from the sea at a market and visit a diving pool before re-boarding the ship that transported them to this destination.

The agricultural highlands, the second island, has two levels in the shape of a plateau, with programming areas for intensive cultivation as well as a seasonal market, kitchen and food processing area on the bottom and passive market gardening on the bottom. the bridge above. The laboratories are concentrated on smaller platforms raised and offset from the market garden fields.

The third island, the desalination plant, offers visitors an opportunity to do more than just look at the labs and machines: its upper deck houses gardens of fruit trees and an outdoor swimming pool with stunning views.

In her thesis, Tyana Laroche describes abandoned oil platforms as “marine carcasses” and resists the idea that these megastructures deserve the “revaluation” of being able to deteriorate into offshore industrial ruins. Far better to transform them into more positive models of production, consumption and distribution, without resorting to design to mask their environmentally problematic past lives. The mechanical landscape, she writes, is “a condensation of layers in constant relation to each other, formalizing a balance between life, death and rebirth of a neglected structure.

Location: Gulf of Mexico

Advisor: Jean Verville