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Ship Break Through

Part 2 Project 2021
Sohhee Oh
Pratt Institute | USA
Global warming is speculated to displace 600 million climate refugees. Through unregulated disposal, the ship breaking yards are sites of mutual harm to the environment and human laborers, accelerated by global consumption of disposable commodities. Ship Break Through is an architectural narrative in which, pushed to the brink, the shipbreaking yard becomes a place for building new cities among shifting political borders brought on by rising sea levels.

From coastal graveyards, cities evolve organically with whatever resources are washed up by ocean currents to meet local conditions. New geological and topographic elements are scattered by massive forces, creating an unplanned urban fabric. Humans affect their new environment by cutting and excavating to exert control over their environment as we once used trees and mines for resources. Reusing the major ship structures, to delay recycling primary source materials, creates novel forms and spatial opportunities in an uncertain new world.


Mimicking the process of whale fall, where massive dying sea creatures fill an important ecological niche as a vital resource and host for smaller organisms, the ships contain the potential to be a resource for self-sustaining habitats for communities on the edge, by recycling scraps in which to build their own future.

Sohhee Oh

Tutor(s)

2021
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