Weathering the Line: Material Intelligence along Shenzhen’s Shoreline

Abstract

Shenzhen’s 61% artificial shoreline, a product of extensive reclamation, creates a homogeneous environment where water becomes a static background. This engineered condition suppresses climatic perception, simplifies ecological systems, and reduces hydraulic energy, leading to the accumulation of heavy-metal sediments. This thesis questions whether the edge must remain a precise line or can operate as an aqueous territory, a hybrid zone shaped by metabolic weathering. Challenging the engineered fiction of permanence, the project shifts from “Program - Material - Maintenance” to “Material Reaction - Program - Transformation.” Reclaimed urban debris, concrete, brick, and excavated soil are recalibrated as metabolic infrastructures. Comprising waterbreaks, communal fisher markets, and intertidal islands, these interventions reveal climatic processes while facilitating aeration and water purification, fostering successions and a sensory engagement with the water’s metabolic rhythms. Instead of a terminal boundary, the shoreline is reframed as a breathing condition, where material decay cultivates ecological awareness and reclaims a proximity with water.