The Wasteland Guardians of Jean-Lafitte
Option Studio Project sited in New Orleans, LA, USA
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Cornell University
Supervised by Assistant Prof Tao Dufour
The industrial canals are one of the most damaging elements in the Louisiana wetlands, this is because the canals with their unnaturally straight geometry essentially create shortcuts in the landscape that bypass the pre-existing environmental balance: the shortcuts allow nutrients from the Mississippi river to escape without deposition and accumulate in the gulf, while at the same time allowing storm surges to reach inland much faster and with much greater force than it would have naturally. Thus it has severe implications on a wide range of environmental issues such as rapid land loss, saltwater intrusion, habitat loss, nurtient depletion, wetland subsidence and eutrophycation.
