This thesis explores the use of discarded oyster shells in architecture, suggesting new approaches to sustainable building materials.
What if architectural building materials could do more than reduce harm? Instead, what if our materials embodied healing, stewardship, and honoured their locality. Drawing from waste streams within British Columbia’s shellfish aquaculture industry, this thesis re-imagines discarded oyster shells as viable architectural materials, shaped by coastal ecologies and cycles of care. Grounded in material processuality, shells are approached not as resources but as participants, holding traces of place, time, and transformation.
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Rachel Henson (2026) studied this question.
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