🌊 Building BioDiverCity

The blueprint is an experimental design- where invasive species, ocean waste, and new technology get repurposed into living infrastructure.

Instead of importing concrete or tropical reef molds, I’m exploring localized, organic reef building using materials already impacting Oregon’s coast.
That means:

  • Harvesting invasive urchins (whose overgrazing destroys kelp forests)

  • Using sargassum and seaweed biomass as natural binders—similar in texture to

    the Lush jelly scrubs, but repurposed for marine eco-engineering

  • Blending marine-safe minerals to create eco-friendly substrates

  • 3D-printing reef molds designed specifically for cold-water species

These molds become modular reef tiles and hollow reef “city blocks”—lightweight enough for

divers to deploy and textured enough for algae, invertebrates, and juvenile fish to settle on.

DiverCity’s goal is to create a fully Oregon-sourced reef system, built from the very species that threaten

the coastline, transforming a problem into habitat. Each piece is designed to be measured, monitored,

and photographed over time, tying directly into DiverCity’s larger mission of conservation diving and community science.

“DiverCity Reef Sanctuary” is essentially a blueprint for a future ocean neighborhood- crafted from innovation, local problem-solving, and diver-led stewardship.

Before launching DiverCity, I conducted my undergraduate senior research project- supported by the Alaska NASA Space Grant Program on Seasonal Settlement at Smitty's Cove.

I used custom-built structures deployed in glacier fed coastal waters. These early prototypes were designed, fabricated, and tested to evaluate how surface texture, orientation, and microhabitat complexity influence colonization rates in cold-water ecosystems.