Can we grow kelp and oysters in the fight against climate change? Can we harvest renewable energy at obsolete offshore platforms in the North Sea? Throughout October 2020, Bluespring (formely MET-support) participated in this 3-part scenario design workshop to investigate marine permaculture and offshore renewable energy harvesting as a strategy to transform obsolete offshore platforms in the North Sea. Oil production platforms will be redesigned to become sites for ecologically sustainable food forests for carbon absorption, providing living space for marine species as well as humans powered by energy from the sea. Watch the final presentation below. Workshop participants included legal professionals, designers, multi-media specialist, architects, engineers and entrepreneurs.
Bluespring contributed to the discussion by giving examples of multi-functional offshore platforms and offshore energy farms worldwide, from the NOMAD inhabitable offshore lab developed in Costa Rica to DNV-GL's future vision of floating islands. We discussed how wind, solar and wave energy can complement and support business cases for offshore farming.
This workshop was hosted during the IMPAKT Festival 2020: Zero Footprint. IMPAKT Festival 2020: Zero Footprint questions the paradigms of sustainability and the extractive nature of our current system. Care, solidarity, playfulness and experimentation are central to conceive new solutions and alternatives and bring about a change in awareness.
The workshop is part of the Zoöp Project: a new cooperative organisation for representing and cooperating with "non-human" ecological communities, such as our oceans. The workshop was developed by Sjef van Gaalen (Structure and Narrative) and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Researcher at Het Nieuwe Instituut).