oyster-tecture en · NOUN
Etymology
Coined by Kate Orff. Blend of oyster + architecture
Meanings
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(uncountable) The use of oyster reefs to mitigate the effects of storm surge and rising sea levels and to filter polluted water.
The $60 million project, devised by landscape architect Kate Orff more than a decade ago and launched by the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, uses an approach that Orff has dubbed “oyster-tecture”: partially submerged mounds of rubble mingle with shell structures implanted with living larvae.
2021 November 19, Julia Hotz, “New York City Is Building a Wall of Oysters to Fend Off Floods”, in Bloomberg CityLab:Such is the potential that the concept of oyster-tecture – the use of oysters as an architectural resource – was developed by landscape architect Kate Orff and presented in a 2010 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
2016 November 17, Edward Helmore, “Oysters are making a comeback in the polluted waters around New York City”, in The Guardian:The vision for oyster-tecture is to create a network of oyster reefs that interlink from Texas to Maine.
2012 May 30, Neil Chambers, “The Viability and Vision of Oyster-tecture”, in Metropolis: