OIL+WATER

The projects investigate two crucial resources of the Texas Coast: Oil and Water, and their relationship to the natural, cultural,  and built environment.

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Both oil and water have been a premise for settlement and a motor for growth in the coastal landscape of South Texas. Following the end of the United States oil export embargo from 1975, the late oil-boom of 2016 once again brings economic growth but also environmental challenges to the region.

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The Epoch of the Anthropocene, the impact of human activity on the climate, is visible. The Texas coast and its petrochemical industry have generated a new landscape: a landscape of oil and water. While water used to be a premise for settlement all over the world, it became a resource, equally crucial for petrochemical processing as for their distribution around the globe. The geopolitical impact of Texas oil, logistically distributed though the Texas coast, is huge. With well over one million barrels of oil products exported per day, Texas now produces more oil than Iran or Iraq. The late oil-boom of 2016  is a fundamental parameter in the (re)formation and

(re)industrialization of Texas’ coastal landscape.

/ VISION

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Resilient (city) landscapes balancing oil and water ecologically, culturally, and economically.

/ MISSION

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Committed to knowledge, we develop inclusive future scenarios based on progressive design, research, and community input.