Situated in the southern waters of Singapore, this project seeks to reconsider the boundary condition between land and sea – instead of living on reclaimed land protected by seawalls, can we establish a safe and sustainable way to live with the sea? Coastal architecture must learn to adapt like a living organism, capable of exchanging resources with the sea while withstanding and solving the problems that come with being in seawater.

The project imagines a new way of sea-based construction, where a material called Biorock is grown in the sea for several years and eventually lifted out of the water as the building material. This material is carbon negative, storing carbon in the form of calcium carbonate, acting as a carbon sink while it grows. Apart from its unique fabrication, the project also responds to the sea in a sensitive and reciprocal way – cleansing the seawater and rejuvenating the underwater world by bringing back biodiversity.

The project explores a new way of envisioning the coastal defence system, not just an engineering outcome with predefined static boundaries, but a strategy of active responsive expansion into the sea that supports the living. The architecture is restorative and regenerative. It is partly submerged, acting as underwater breakwaters, and inviting biodiversity to settle. It is partly afloat, allowing activities to happen for visitors and inhabitants.