PUNCTUATING

DREDGE | Chesapeake Bay | Davis, Shivers, Cantrell

All work was produced collaboration with Judy Chen and Ailsa Thai

Existing protection and containment measures for dredge are crude and unsightly. Facilities like Craney and Poplar rely on isolation and armory. These islands are both literal, surrounded by water, and metaphorical, separating themselves from the natural processes of the bay.

Using existing technologies of turbidity curtains, fences, and pumping equipment, this project seeks to punctuate this process of beneficial reuse, calling to attention the aesthetic potential of island building.

The Chesapeake Bay is remarkably shallow. Many “disappearing islands” are submerged by less than ten feet of water. This is the same effective depth for sediment curtains and fences. The orange area corresponds to potential deployment sites.

Barren Island is one such island. The curtains’ deploymnet is choreographed over a ten year period, allowing sediment to gather at its base before shifting to expand the newly consolidated shallow landmass.

Consolidation Studies

water, sand mix, burlap, rock, nails, gauze, plywood, foamcore

While most forms of dredge containment are solid, the group was interested in a more leaky approach. We focused on what kind of material (pebbles, sand, or silt) passed through or accumulated against the screen.

Tools and Experiments

In order to understand how a sediment slurry accumulates and consolidates, the group used the water table alongside several custom observation devices like the plywood pump box above. The holes allowed sediment to be pumped from various angles while the foam core inserts could test the stopping power of different materials.

Curtains and Fences

From the previous tests, we concluded that a semi-permeable fabric would best hold the sediment while also being a completely temporary solution. In shallow areas, the fabric would be deployed as a fence, while in deeper areas, they would be suspended as a sediment curtain. The tests above examines the repeated effect of wave action and sediment accumulation against different angles and layering of these systems.

1:1 Construction Drawings

In order to convey the shallowness of the nearshore, the group toook care to draw the interventions at a 1:1 scale and presented them as such. A mockup of the sediment curtain was made to further convey the true scale of these devices usually submerged in murkey water.

Sketch Wall with collages, pastel drawings, and wave simulations by Judy Chen, Andre Grospe, and Ailsa Thai

1:1 Section Details by Andre Grospe, and Ailsa Thai Mock Sediment Curtain made of custom water jet hardware, ripstock nylon, geotextile fabric, stainless shackles, foam by Andre Grospe

Prospective Aerials and Perspectives pastel, pencil, collage by Ailsa Thai

Exhibition

The group’s studies spanned from collages, sketches, videos, overlays, and mapping. This breadth was presented as an interactive exhibit in order to invite guests into our process. The goal was to convey both the plausability of the intervention and the aesthetic potential of these mysterious lines and mounds emerging from the water.

Predicted Sediment Movement Drawing

digital drawings traced and animated from experiments drawings and animations by Andre Grospe

Section Development over time digital drawing and collage by Judy Chen

Deployment Schedule (above) and Installation Plans and Vignettes (below) digital drawings, pastel overlay, collage by Ailsa Thai and Andre Grospe

Barren Island Plan digital drawing by Ailsa Thai

Light Box with alternate sites digital drawings on vellum box by Andre Grospe drawings by Ailsa Thai and Judy Chen

Mid Bay Shallows Map digital drawing by Judy Chen and Andre Grospe

Fence and Curtain Choreography digital drawing by Ailsa Thai

Racialized Topographies

Currently, the Black Bus Stop is a 50’ x 50’ UTS bus stop located at a middle ground, both in plan and section, on the South Western edge of the Lawn, at the base of the former plantation Monroe Hill. However, this seemingly banal point within the University proved a significant space for Black visibility and gathering during the 70s-00s, serving as both everyday meeting place and stage for initiation and celebration events, all in the informal confines of a bus stop.

This project takes inspiration from the ways in which a critical mass can transform a space of transience to a place of joy and conviviality. By expanding the paving from the sidewalk, across the road, the bus stop further asserts itself as a space for pedestrians rather than traffic. The built canopy and planting help turn this space into an outdoor room.

Thick Sections

University of Virginia planned its architecture to displace, segregate, and hide Black communities. These communities found home in the lowest lying areas of the city, the only land available to them. The Black Bus Stop exists at the juncture of this racialized topography. The ridge the BBS sits upon was a contact zone between students and enslaved laborers. The drawing above reveals the thick and erased history embedded in the land.

The thick section drawing helped clarify the form of the design. The retaining walls push land back to form a stage that rests on a ridge. This gives the BBS a topographic presence at the end of this ridge.

Section and Grading Plan

Plastecine Study Models (above)