To celebrate International Women’s Day 2011, today we’re looking back at last December’s TEDxAmsterdamWomenwith a series of articles and videos.
Kate Orff is an Assistant Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she teaches graduate design studios and interdisciplinary seminars focused on sustainable development, biodiversity, and community-based change. Kate states : “I am passionate about the american landscape and how it had shaped our history and character – but one thing is clear – we do our upmost to flatten both the landscape and bio-diversity”.
As an urban designer, Kate sees her mission to reconstruct the natural balance by bringing together urbanism and ecology. But in order to achieve that we need new tools and approaches, new stories and heroes….
Kate’s hero is non other then the eastern oyster. Her study focused on harnessing the biological power of oyster growth in NYC harbor. Trying to look back and learn from the original landscape back from 1770 – she espires to reconstruct the intelligence of the land by getting the eastern oysters back in the water.
Besides the fact that they’re delicious with fries – and important for the marine habitat the thing you didn’t know about oysters is that one oyster can filter up to 50 gallon of water a day.. thats pretty significant if you manage to create a significant oyster habitat.
Kates vision is using oysters to solve pollution and rebalance the bio-system in the area by hybridizing new oyster recreational and scientific areas, having mobile solutions such as a floating upwelling system a raft with oyster chambers (accommodating 10,000 oysters at a time), oyster gardening, and even to have an oyster floating parade for the new eco-hero …
Hopefully this initiative will realize and spread to other cities with harbor access… Reforming an urban landscape for a more sustainable future has never been more delicious…
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