As the East River tide recedes along the shores of New York City’s Randall’s Island, the retreating waters expose a jagged wall of concrete geometric forms, coated in green algae. Like the Manhattan towers visible in the distance, these sturdy, stony structures are home to diverse communities. Barnacles cling tenaciously to their sides, while crabs skitter in and out of the cavities that pit the low walls that hover just above the water line.

These Intertidal Objects form an ecological installation that protects eroding shorelines while providing shelter for sea life. Designed by Object Territories, a design firm based in Brooklyn and Hong Kong, the installation is being tested in the waters off Randall’s Island as a nature-based solution to coastal erosion. The project will soon expand to the coastline off nearby Governors Island as part of an initiative that will provide entrepreneurs with real-world labs for testing prototypes that address climate-change solutions.

A living lab for testing

The Trust for Governors Island, which operates and manages much of the island, welcomes entrepreneurs to use the 172-acre island and its two miles of waterfront and helps funding innovative projects through its annual Climate Solutions Challenge.

Clare Newman, CEO of The Trust for Governors Island, says the Trust is positioning the island as leader in piloting climate solutions for the New York City region. “Let people come and try stuff,” Newman said. “You’re not testing in isolation in a lab, but in a real-world environment and you can see how people respond.”

Last year, Object Territories was one of six winners selected for the Trust’s Challenge on water abundance. In addition to $10,000 in grant support, the winners will have access to the Island to develop and demonstrate their projects.

Access to these kinds of living labs is critical for Object Territories, as the firm seeks to improve upon their Intertidal Objects. Their prototypes first came to life in Hong Kong. The city hired the team, along with several others, to design coastal armoring units and sea wall panels. This effort kick-started their initial research and resulted in two different prototypes that were tested in the Hong Kong Harbor: The octahedron and the rock pool, a miniature tidal pool that siphons water and sea life in and out.

The Intertidal Objects are a constant work in progress. “Each time we try to improve by adding elements, like increasing the surface area with more dents to help self-shade or applying different textures,” said Marcus Carter, co-founder and architect of Object Territories.

When the team discovered, for instance, that larger holes made it easy for predators to come pick off baby oysters, they added smaller concavities that oysters can wedge in until they grow big enough to push out and have a better chance of surviving. They also applied different textures to the forms that make it easier for barnacles and algae to attach, enhancing the aquatic ecosystem and adding new voids for fish to lay eggs in.

“We also made sure that the objects could be placed in any orientation, forming a visible, almost Gordian texture,” Carter said. What stays the same in every installation, however, is the geometrical form, which easily integrates in existing stone sea wall structures.

Working with nature, protecting by design

According to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, climate change is causing cloudburst events, coastal storms, and sea level rise to become more frequent and intense. In addition to creating a habitat for sea life, the Intertidal Objects offer a nature-based solution to help protect shorelines from the devasting ecological impact of coastal erosion and storm surges.

Figuring out how to better protect New York City has been part of the public conversation since Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012. Flooding became a reality for residents throughout the city and raised the question of how to fortify shorelines in ways that are not at war with nature, unlike the bulkheads or seawalls that have long been used to protect people and property. These traditional concrete structures may address immediate threats, but are inflexible to the faster changing climate and they can cause problems elsewhere, like loss of biodiversity and habitat degradation.

By contrast, the Intertidal Objects can be integrated into hard existing stone sea walls and promote a living shoreline. “They are only one ingredient in a very layered landscape,” Carter said. They add an extra dimension to an existing sea wall, transforming it to a smart structure that not only protects the coastline, but also creates bio habitats. “Or you can stack them like Lego’s to build an artificial coastline,” Carter said.

Resilient defenders

Providing Object Territories with access to Governors Island offers another opportunity: public education. In addition to being an ideal location to situate and experiment with their objects in the water, the island provides ample locations to showcase the concrete forms on land. Visitors can see, touch and learn about the forms, which could give rise to potential collaborations with landscape-architecture firms.

The Intertidal Objects will soon be tested and placed in the existing stone coastline at Governors Island, gradually becoming camouflaged within and inhabited by new communities of aquatic creatures in the tidal waters of the East River.

The pilot will also monitor the objects on both locations under starkly different water conditions: the brackish water surrounding Randall’s Island and the faster-moving waters at Governors Island, closer to the mouth of the harbor. Engineered to support natural spaces, the Intertidal Objects may soon add an essential layer of protection for New York shores, the people, and sea life.