Coral Skeleton Scaffold Project

By Gage Egan

Currently i’m university student based in Liverpool at Liverpool John Moores. I began this project, with a focus on understanding the patterns and underlying ideas behind how art and science can coexist and develope Into a new creative form, That when collaborating with one another can design new inventive solutions to problem we all face.

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Mars modal By Alex Goad

Mars prototype

Installation

Mars being assembled

Weeks later

Over time the mars modal attracted life

Mars modal By Alex Goad

Mars prototype

Bio

Where the project began

I first found myself interested in this topic after participating in a group project to design a piece of equipment that would act as a scaffold to help promote the growth of skeletal muscle tissue from stem cells in an ex-vitro simulation prior to being inserted into the body during muscle repair surgery.It was from researching stem cell and muscle scaffold systems that I found a coral conservation project; MARS – Modular Artificial Reef Structure, which is currently using similar methods of 3D printing to help promote the growth of coral in areas effected by damage and encourage the return of aquatic life. the idea for the project comes from adopting the working method thats implemented by Reef Design Lab who were the creators of the MARS project where they had taken advantage of using their multidisciplinary studio to creat structural forms that have a positive effect for the environment they are implemented into as a way to promote the growth of nursing coral.

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The Project

Why do we need Coral Scaffolds?

The damage effecting coral reefs is happening globally and is a well documented problem caused by a number of environmental pressures. These include ocean acidification, river sedimentation runoff, destructive fishing practices, invasive species and most commonly coral bleaching caused by warming ocean temperatures as a result of climate change or micro-plastics.

One method that communities around the world are using to restore areas of damaged coral reef is to develop underwater farms/nurseries that can accompany for the wide variety of coral species then can then be transferred back into a natural reef colony. Each of these farms has had varying success as currently the most common practice is to build an underwater structures to grow fragged coral piece on coral trees made from pvc pipping, bio rock structures, steel tables or scrap structures, and concrete breeze blocks. Although these methods are making a meaning impact already, it is important to continue developing new framing methods that can facilitate the specific growing criteria of each coral and the area they are being cultivated.

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The Aims

What this project plans to achieve.

The aim of this project is to design a new system that is adaptable for the many needs and requirements that come with growing new coral colonies which can also be easily transported and implanted into community’s without the need of a special skill set or heavy-duty machinery but still allows for a strong lasting structure with a minimal disturbances to the environment it is installed in with an added reduction in material cost by utilising modern technological process to help stream line the design and manufacturing of the outcome.

The second aim this project focuses on why this work is important to you, as mentioned in the previous sections about what has caused coral colonies/reefs to decline such as destructive fishing, invasive species and micro-plastics the biggest contributing factor to these causes are us and the choices we make on a daily basis, so this page will also function as a guide or informational point on some of differences you can chose to make to lower your own impact on the climate and coral reefs .

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How to get involved.

What can you do form home to take part.

As this project is still within the early stages of development, the only thing need to get involved is a creative sprit, if you wish to take part all you have to do is take inspiration for a pre-existing forms of coral and ocean plant life and imagine how its form, texture or function can be adapted into a scaffold like structure that a nursing coral could then be grown on. Your design could take the form of a simple line drawing, modal or any material you believe to best represent your idea and how it should work. Then simply E-mail your creations to the page in the last section below to see what they can become. To help with inspiration in your own design ill be updating the blog section of this page regularly with simple how to guides on creating coral forms and drawing for people to use and adapt into their own designs within the section you can also find research into other projects like my own and information on how to reduce your own impact on coral life.

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So what are the conditions?

What is needed for me to be able to creat an efficient design.

For a design to be truly effective their are some basic requirements that need to be considered and kept in mind when working on your scaffold form, the growing criteria listed below is the generalisation of the most common conditions needed to grow a majority of coral species;

Sunlight: Corals need to grow in shallow water where sunlight can reach them. Corals also depends on the algae (or more precisely zooxanthellae) that grow inside of them for oxygen and other things, and since these algae needs sunlight to survive, corals also need sunlight to survive. Corals rarely develop in water deeper than 50 meters. So your design should factor in how all sides will be able to get just enough light.

Clear water: Corals need clear water that lets sunlight through; they don’t thrive well when the water is opaque or cloudy. Sediment and plankton can cloud water, which decreases the amount of sunlight that reaches the needed algae. Can your design function in anyway that will prevent it from being effected by cloudy water.

Clean water: Corals are sensitive to pollution and sediments. Sediment can create cloudy water and be deposited on corals, blocking out the sun and harming the polyps. Wastewater discharged into the ocean near the reef can contain too many nutrients that cause seaweeds to overgrow the reef. Is it possible in anyway for you to have an external or attachment on your form that could protect the nursing coral form this impact.

Saltwater: Corals need saltwater to survive and require a certain balance in the ratio of salt to water. This is why corals don’t live in areas where rivers drain fresh water into the ocean (“estuaries”). This can effect what you might propose to make your design out of as some materials can’t withstand being submerged in saltwater for too long so how will this effect your design is you can’t use most natural materials.

Warm water temperature: Reef-building corals require warm water conditions to survive. Different corals living in different regions can withstand various temperature fluctuations. However, corals generally live in water temperatures of 20–32° C. Although this doesn’t appear to have much of an effect on most materials or design functions it could have an impact on your choice of bonding agents such as exproxy resin and other adhesives.

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