WASHED GREEN — August Breen

Fall 2021

Parsons School of Design

M.Arch Design Studio I: Pluriverse

Instructors: Eirini Tsachrelia, Michelle Shofet, Gökhan Kodalak

Observed Species: Cicadoidea, Quercus palustris

Washed Green: Elevating Ecosystems Above the Flood

Sea levels are rising; humanity has desecrated the planet and nature is retaliating. Considering the already devastating state of our planet and its atmosphere, sea levels are on track to rise no matter what tactics are done to prevent increased warming of the planet. Ecologies all along the coast are at risk of flooding and exposure to salt and pollutants in water. Humans cannot completely stop the water from rising, but total devastation can be avoided with infrastructure that shields or elevates areas from the water. Humans should do as much as they can to preserve the natural environments along the coast before entire ecosystems are erased.

This project emerged after a semester’s long observation of the Ramble in Central Park at various spatial, temporal and bodily scales. I observed and documented the entangled relationships of human and non-human species which occupy the site. This project proposes an intervention for multiple stakeholders to enhance the observed community relationships by creating positive feedback loops. My proposal aims to uplift and maintain the natural order of the existing ecosystem as human-caused climate change wreaks havoc across the planet. The intervention elevates plants and insects above the floodplain while still maintaining crucial connections underground.

Many species, including the pin oak tree and cicada, rely on healthy diverse soils to survive and reproduce. Flooding will kill them. Trees cannot swim. Neither can cicadas and their subterranean nymphs. Trees and other vegetation will flood, rot, and die. Coastlines will erode and land as we know it will begin to disappear. Cicadas create mud chimneys two inches high to prevent rainfall from flooding out their burrows. But two inches of protection is no match for the several feet of water that is expected to come. The life cycles of certain species, likePin Oak Trees and Cicadas, can be described as happy accidents. The circumstances in which such species are able to reproduce are out of luck. Pin Oak trees produce millions of acorns, and cicadas lay hundreds of eggs due to the low survival rates of their seeds and offspring. With an increased risk of flooding, their reproductive rates could drop. Many species could face extinction. An acorn will never sprout into a hardy oak if it lands within a flood plain. Cicadas, which spend the majority of their existence underground, will be washed away. The impacts of the eradication of these species will not be immediately evident. Cicadas have a 17-year long life cycle and could take that long before we notice their absence. An oak tree can live for centuries, but if acorns and saplings are flooded out – it could take one hundred years before we realize the last oak tree has fallen.

Ramble Site Model: Constructed by entire cohort of M.Arch Design Studio I, Fall 2021

Cicada Study Model (Wood)

Cicada Study Model (Plaster)

Cicada Study Model (Cork)

Scaled Intervention Model (Cork)

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contact me: augbreen@gmail.com