Tijuana Center for Soil Regeneration

Along with colleagues Laetitia Morlie and Kenneth Wilson, a soil regeneration center was designed in Tijuana, Mexico. The goal of this center is to reintroduce part of the biodiversity of the Tijuana River National Estuary to a site that has been ecologically marginalized in the last century.
This aim is achieved through the construction of impact-printed modular soil structures comprised of two distinct materials. The first material is structural and derived from locally sourced soils. The second material is embedded with native bacteria and is designed to erode over time to nurture the soil and promote plant growth. As this second material relies on moisture to be weathered down, it is placed in specific environmental niches and non-structural areas of the center. In contrast, the main structural material is placed in dry and sunny microclimates. Overall, the assembly and locations of the soil-based geometries, alongside their mass and material allocations, differ from one microclimate to another.