Abstract
Coastal reef environments foster biodiversity through their complex topographies, which offer substrate and diverse habitats across trophic levels. While artificial reefs can mimic these functions and results, implementation barriers have historically limited their ability to address coastal habitat loss at scale. This research presents a novel method for artificial reef construction that combines hand craft weaving practices with artificial reef construction innovations. The design framework, dubbed “SeaWeaver,” meets the ecological criteria for reef topography through complex geometries inherent to woven forms while retaining the cost-efficiency, material simplicity and parametric variability of weaving crafts. The integration of simple electrochemical processes presents a variety of corrosion resistance strategies for long-term structural durability. Three years of successful pilot testing underscore the promise of this approach in overcoming historical conservation barriers and fostering positive transformation in coastal ecosystems through a low-barrier and accessible design framework.
Keywords
ocean conservation; woven craft; industrial design engineering; biomimicry
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.615
Citation
Hummel, L. (2024) SeaWeaver: Integrating Cultural Craft and Materials Innovation for Artificial Reef Conservation Strategies, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.615
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
SeaWeaver: Integrating Cultural Craft and Materials Innovation for Artificial Reef Conservation Strategies
Coastal reef environments foster biodiversity through their complex topographies, which offer substrate and diverse habitats across trophic levels. While artificial reefs can mimic these functions and results, implementation barriers have historically limited their ability to address coastal habitat loss at scale. This research presents a novel method for artificial reef construction that combines hand craft weaving practices with artificial reef construction innovations. The design framework, dubbed “SeaWeaver,” meets the ecological criteria for reef topography through complex geometries inherent to woven forms while retaining the cost-efficiency, material simplicity and parametric variability of weaving crafts. The integration of simple electrochemical processes presents a variety of corrosion resistance strategies for long-term structural durability. Three years of successful pilot testing underscore the promise of this approach in overcoming historical conservation barriers and fostering positive transformation in coastal ecosystems through a low-barrier and accessible design framework.