(Wet)land Building

Visiting assistant professor Shelby Doyle is working with Kiel Moe, assistant professor of Harvard Graduate School of Design, in teaching the Spring 2015 studio ARCH 7004. The focus of this studio, “Architecture of (Wet)Land Building: Wax Lake Delta NERRS Research Center,” is to propose designs for the flagship Louisiana National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) facility in the Wax Lake Delta, to be part of the national system that protects more than 1.3 million acres in 28 reserves in 22 states and Puerto Rico. Louisiana is currently the only Gulf Coast state without a NERRS site or facility. The 35,000-square-foot facility will include office space, laboratories, classrooms, exhibition space, and a dormitory—as well as a program for educational outreach.

Doyle and Moe accompanied the students on a field trip to the Wax Lake Delta in March. [View photos from the Wax Lake Delta on Flickr.] Earlier in the spring, the students visited the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Grand Bay, Mississippi, and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) DeFelice Marine Center in Cocodrie, Louisiana, to experience and document two architectural precedents that combine ongoing scientific research and public education and outreach. [View photos from Grand Bay on Flickr.]

The CSS provided financial, planning, and institutional support for the course. CSS works to envision and design sustainable systems that reduce vulnerability to increased storm strength, coastal hazards, habitat degradation, and global environmental change. The results of this design experimentation provide a sound basis for major policy decisions for adaptation through more sustainable land-use planning protection, and education.