Date of Award

Spring 6-3-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Department

Architecture

First Advisor

Anne Tate

Second Advisor

Ryan McCaffrey

Abstract

Nantucket MA, is an island that has failed to refine and regulate the unreasonable uses of freshwater supply, and re-establish the purification processes involved with filtering our wastewater. The validity in claiming re-evaluation for Nantucket’s immoderacies in freshwater consumption and implausibility's in existing wastewater treatments, is seemingly irrefutable. Along with these detriments, Nantucket experiences harsh coastal erosion conditions that are rapidly altering beach profiles and diminishing irreplaceable habitats. Similarly, coastal flooding is causing ecological displacement and in some instances ecological degradation.

The relentlessness and fleetingness sparked by Nantucket’s climatic realities require willing and able action to mitigate impacts; but our fractured response bears no chance. We have spent several years excessively funding the fight against erosion, and countless hours developing preventative coastal flooding measures, but we have yet to face our persistence in over consuming Nantucket’s natural resources. Due to the failure of local officials, there is no other option than to educate the people in my community who blindly partake in this lasting behavior.

As a global citizen, it is my responsibility to face these instances inclusively and diversely, for I have had the opportunity in receiving a contemporary education. Through this education, I have learned new water management techniques that involve biologically complex processes paired with technologically simple operations. A hybridization of living machines and constructed wetlands come together in purifying on site wastewater, and filtering nearby bodies of water.

As the designer, these systems will be my driving force in developing an institution for the researchers and scientists employed at Maria Mitchell Association to educate our community. This non-profit organization has studied Nantucket’s natural sciences for decades, playing a vital role in our understanding of various biological disciplines. Schematically, this thesis will prioritize ecological expansion, allowing built structure to become one with habitat. The landscapes consisting of native plants, biological filtration mechanisms, and various experiential gardens, will come together in defining Nantucket’s newest outdoor classroom.

Welcome to the first natural and geological sciences institution in Nantucket Massachusetts, where local school systems, summer camps, and community members are welcome to learn from respected, highly skilled scientists and researchers. The first assignment entails studying, understanding and resolving Miacomet Ponds toxic algal blooms and its annual reoccurrences.

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