Materiality in the Seam Space: Sketches for a Transitional Port City Dome District

Biomass material volatility generates new opportunities for port-city relationships. Alternative energy markets require specialized port facilities to handle bulk commodities like biomass. Wood pellets, a type of biomass, present warehousing challenges due combustion danger. The industrial response this risk has generated storage forms regions. return cargo reintroduces materiality as focus city research, which had generally been regarded peripheral concern since the advent shipping container. container come represent borderless, ‘fast capitalism’ throughput model, but research on ‘accidents’ complicated reductive globalization narrative. programmatic dynamism wood pellet dome structures suggests spatially-porous possibilities an interstitial border space at interface with commonalities and hybrid potentials resilient logistics civic facilities. In contrast unitization, signifies standardization coastal/riparian environment. Dome can help ports plan complex behaviors increasing extreme weather events. article begins then explore that construction technology generates. Conceptually, joins proposal ‘seam space’ resilience planning porosity celebrated in recent urbanism literature. Scaling up from district, contributes calls increased attention means envision urban agendas.