A Post-Industrial Seaport: Deconstructed, Re-assembled
Atmosphere and Agency
Mr. Tsuto Sakamoto
Singapore’s soon-to-be-built Tuas Megaport will be it’s largest container port yet - a massive infrastructure of commerce and industry. Yet, with new shipping routes opening in the Arctic and in through China, global trade is set to steadily shift away from Singapore. What will become of Tuas Megaport post-industry? This thesis posits a future culture of kinship with the sea - a new sea industry of small-scale free range aquaculture that re-adapts and leverages on the existing port infrastructure as its own - deconstructing and re-assembling it into a man-made landscape of rocks, beaches and seawall. The architecture nestles itself within the caverns of the seawall - with cabins, circulation decks, portals and nursery chambers all sheltered from the harsh environment. It questions the aesthetic and the idea of nature and industry by creating coziness and domesticity amidst the ruins of the port landscape.
Instead of being left a barren port, the project proposes a process of naturalisation. By exposing the sand infill of the reclaimed port land, it allows the landform to succumb to the natural forces of the coast, forming a natural beach. Now exposed to the open ocean, the land is slowly leeched of toxic material and nutrified by the open ocean. The debris mined from the deconstruction of the port is then reintroduced into the landscape in pinpoint positions to create a more rocky and stabilised ocean floor. Over the years the ecological naturally start to populate the area - hardy seagrasses, migratory shoals of fish and passing seagulls and birds.
The main architecture lies in the reused engineered concrete caissons. I spent a long time and many iterations exploring the potential of these deep caverns to be adapted to other forms and functions. The eventual proposal Leverages on their efficient grid-layout and the depth of their chambers, the water-filled caissons are perfectly suited to becoming nurseries and hatcheries for young aqua life to support a free range aquaculture community. These nurseries are supplied with nutrified water pumped directly from the ocean, and maintained by a new community of sea people - aquaculture. Farmers, Scientists, artists and craftsmen who can all benefit from immediate proximity to the aqua life from which they draw their inspiration and livelihood. As the young aqualife grow, the sea people have daily interactions w them in the feeding, study and communing with the creatures. Once grown, the people transfer their raised creatures to to the wild rocky shores where they grow to maturity. Now and again, the sea people can monitor and observe their kin through monitoring instruments and trips out to the habitat.
The project challenges the aesthetic of nature by translating it into a different spatial dimension. The pinpointed localised rock formations pointalise the vast ocean into micro-territories. The cavernous depth of the caisson well create a vertical ocean room within the confines of a man-made structure. It is a cozy nature, a micro nature that is confined to very clear spatial boundaries.
It also shows that nature is not just in the living creatures, rocks, trees and animals, but also the very nature of how things are and how things exist. The nature of the caisson is celebrated and emphasised, and the nature of coast is harnessed and used to drive the spatial formation.
The post-industrial seaport shows the possibility of a life and architecture in kinship with nature. The community revolves around a intimate daily life between the inhabitants this landscape are bound by the same spatial dimensions. Furthermore, by bringing this community together in the same almost apocalyptic environment, they are exposed to the same harsh environment against which they adapt and survive. The post-industrial seaport is a man made-natural landscape, but is also an economy, an industry and a community.
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