The World is Your Mussel: Reviving The Coastal Town of Taranto, Italy | Architecture Thesis on Regenerative Architecture

Site Context

Taranto has been heavily contaminated by industrial activity, especially from the steel factory in Ilva. As a result, the Old Town has been abandoned by most locals and is slowly decaying. Through the restoration of traditional black mussel farming—which has been endangered by polluted waters that produce mussels too toxic for human consumption—this project seeks to restore the Old Town.

The mussels will be used as a sustainable building material made on-site by establishing new farms that will aid in cleaning up the pollution through natural filtration. This will allow the fishermen to resume their trade while creating more jobs and ensuring the Old Town of Taranto is restored sustainably.

Design Process

During a site visit to Italy in November 2022, the student was immediately drawn to Taranto because of its rich history and numerous social challenges. The most suitable locations for the mussel farms were determined by simulating pollution in Taranto’s waters using Autodesk CFD and Ladybird through Rhino to measure environmental values and identify the most affected areas. A major goal of the project was to turn mussels into a useful building material. To that end, a lot of time was spent experimenting with different ratios and sizes of grinding to create a robust mussel-crete that could be 3D printed.

Samples were made using a robotic arm and pressure-controlled extrusions, and they were put through a series of compression tests to compare them to similar materials like concrete. Using lidar scans to determine its requirements, the architecture is designed around the tools needed for production, transforming temporary materials into permanent elements.

Final Outcome

The final outcome is a city under construction that transitions from condemnation and abandonment to hope and prosperity. After being planted in the ocean, the mussels are brought to the mussel-crete factory where they are grounded and 3D printed into structural components. 

Using fertilizer from the mussel industry, rooftop gardens are created, bringing residents up out of the narrow streets and into a safer environment with greater access to green spaces from their recently restored homes. Using local resources and labour, the city will be gradually restored while combating pollution through development and quiet protest.

The restored city no longer suffers from its past, but rather thrives on the innovative and sustainable use of its natural resources. The project envisions a self-sustaining cycle where the ocean helps to rebuild the city, the city helps to restore the ocean, and the people lead the charge in creating a cleaner, more prosperous future.

Conclusion: This urban restoration project combines environmental sustainability with socio-economic upliftment, using the innovative mussel-crete technology as a symbol of regeneration and resilience. It serves as a model for future cities grappling with similar challenges of abandonment and environmental degradation.

[This Academic Project has been published with text submitted by the student]