From Wild Gardens to Advancing Bio-Receptivity: Pierre Oskam’s Vision Behind Urban reef

Oskam poses next to two Reefs in his Rotterdam lab 

Adapted from Holland.com 

Pierre Oskam has always been obsessed with nature. While his childhood neighbors took pride in their neatly manicured lawns, the wild garden he maintained in his backyard gave him an appreciation for nature’s ability to develop on its own. His fascination with this ability to self organize and support life greatly influenced Oskam’s decision to pursue a PhD in ecological philosophy after graduating from Delft University with a degree in landscape architecture.

During his PhD, Oskam grew fascinated with abandoned buildings. He realized that, within the shaded halls of old factories or warehouses, there were living, breathing ecosystems – green carpets of plant growth and complex fungal networks – that had emerged on their own and stabilized into an autopoietic environment. Not only had this microcosm of life emerged spontaneously, but it also sustained itself independently. Inspired, the Dutch entrepreneur imagined the possibilities of intentionally providing space for the natural, spontaneous growth processes behind the beauty of abandoned buildings or wild gardens. 

Oskam’s fascination with nature, background in architecture, and study of ecological philosophy were the three fundamental pillars to the co-founding of his startup company, Urban Reef, with fellow visionary Max Latour. The duo wanted to focus specifically on creating systems that allow nature to self-organize, just as it had done in the abandoned factories Oskam observed. 

“I was looking for a way to materialize the philosophy because I wasn’t that good at conveying it only in words.” 

This goal ties in closely with the concept of emergent systems in ecological philosophy, which describes a spontaneous formation of order amidst instability. Emergence is a prevalent and crucial characteristic of life, characterized in evolution or the human mind’s ability to come up with a sudden insight during times of stress. 

The startup’s mission is to design cities to increase their “bio-receptivity,” or their ability to support the emergence of life. Modern cities have become jungles of industrial materials like cement, steel, and glass, and urban dwellers’ contact with nature is limited to neat square parks or the unnaturally straight rows of trees that line boulevards. Recognizing that humans often try to control the environment around them, Urban Reef designs open systems to facilitate the initial growth of nature in cities while allowing it to exchange freely with surroundings to develop further on its own. 

In pursuit of these goals, Urban Reef is working on two prototypes, fittingly called “Reefs,” which are both made with 3D printed ceramic structures with biofilms on top of them to induce the emergence of life. The team has further experimented with circular materials like clay, Mycelium, coffee grounds, paper, dust, dredge, and sea shells, as they decide on the best materials to fit form to function. The team employs computational design to manipulate the complexity of the Reefs’ shapes, as they combine these natural materials with clay to form an intricate physical structure.

Urban Reef experiments with new circular and sustainable materials such as dredge, seashell and many more. 

Images shared by Oskam and Urban Reef

The first is the Reef, a geometric labyrinth of grooves, folds, fissures, and cavities that aims to increase contact with nature and subsequently improve its bioreceptivity. The structure of the Reef allows anything from mosses to grow and birds to find safe places for nesting. Besides its obvious natural functions, Oskam also highlighted to me the importance of beauty and aesthetics as he designs the reefs, noting that they must have a shape that will attract an onlooker’s interest. He wants to share nature’s beauty in a way that inspires others just as he was by his wild garden. 

From left to right: Reef cavity providing microrefugia for flora and fauna, biofilm on Rain Reef invites plant growth as it collects water, Reefs standing in an open field for testing 

Images shared by Oskam and Urban Reef

The company’s second design is the Rain Reef, which stores wastewater falling from rooftops to change the microclimate conditions within the structure. Collecting water provides a moist, cool environment, rich with nutrients that enables a new microsystem to thrive. Not only does this allow beautiful green mosses and algae to thrive, it also becomes microrefugia during extreme weather, providing a safe space for all types of biodiversity to survive. Especially with challenges like the urban island heat effect, structures like the Rain Reef will maintain a cool stable internal temperature for the flora and fauna it supports. In contrast to a philosophy which specializes in saving one species, the Rain Reef particularly reflects Urban Reef’s pride in inclusivity and openness towards all biodiversity. 

Recognizing the importance of monitoring their prototypes’ development, the Dutch company is piloting several programs with local high schools. Along with receiving feedback from students, they’ve supplemented curriculums through projects like growing biofilms in labs and creating infographics and spreadsheets to visualize life’s development in these reefs. 

One of Urban Reef’s current challenges is physically integrating their Reefs into the cities, and they’re seeking anyone, from developers to investors, interested in collaborating! Current ideas include integrating the structures within buildings or operating as stand alone sculptures within the city's walkways. Oskam also shared with me a design for hosting the Reefs on a dock, which would allow for a functional and space-saving method of implementation. The company is currently looking for developers to partner with and expand the physical presence of their Reefs.  

Imagining the integration of Reefs into urban architecture 

Images shared by Oskam and Urban Reef

Beyond increasing bio-receptivity, Urban Reef seeks to shift the very way people look at nature so that they can be more ecologically inclusive. As they welcome the growth of fungi, moss, and other natural organisms that emerge from their reefs, the team is blazing a trail in sustainable urban design. Trackingteck will provide updates on their progress integrating beautiful structures into our concrete jungles to support open ecosystems and advanced bio-receptivity.