A Folding regenerative shell
The final result of our speculation is the merging of an urchin ranching facility and a farm-to-table dining establishment, built out of the sea urchin shells themselves, creating a circular loop where the shells create the architecture.
Folding
UrchiGami envisions the use of excess shell waste from purple sea urchin removal in the construction of two new building materials, Gami-Sheets and Urchi-Crete. The architectural form pulls concepts of structure and stability from the art of origami paper folding.
unrolling
The thin, paper-like material of Gami-Sheet is composed of crushed sea urchin shells act as both framework and enclosure, eliminating the need for external supportive material such as rebar or steel.
growing
The addition of Urchi-Crete, a mixture of the same crushed sea urchin shells and a live alginate binder, provides reinforcement and reduces permeability by adopting the naturally occurring process of calcium carbonate precipitation to induce self-healing and regeneration.
