Date of Award

Spring 6-4-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)

Department

Landscape Architecture

First Advisor

Nick De Pace

Second Advisor

Andrea Johnson

Abstract

Where is the line between land and sea? As the United States begins to extend renewable energy infrastructures offshore, it will fundamentally blur the boundary between submerged and visible lands. In communities unfamiliar with landscapes of extraction and generation, the realities of this emerging industry will challenge notions of ownership, aesthetic values, and environmental ethics.

Offshore Speculation opens a dialogue between the discipline of landscape architecture and the spatial politics that support the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels. Reimagining the sea as a new urban territory on submerged land allows honest interrogation of the land-sea binary. Because landscape architects are adept at visualizing temporal, spatial, and scalar change, they can reveal generative tensions and facilitate advocacy toward truly just transitions. This thesis plunges into the nuanced dynamics of power, energy, and perception of space on, near, and offshore. By offering a common vocabulary and vision for submerged lands and the infrastructures that occupy them, ‘Offshore Speculation’ demonstrates how it may be possible to imagine hybrid and multifunctional futures within and among them.

Comments

View exhibition online: Leigh Miller, Offshore Speculation

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