Treasure Island Beach: A Permanent Nourishment Infrastructure

The vision for Treasure Island is to outfit the beach with an automated sediment replenishment process. Historically, the beach has undergone an intensive nourishment regime in which hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand are deposited on the shoreline in order to counteract erosion. Alternatively, the design proposes a permanent nourishment infrastructure to continuously and incrementally nourish the beach.

The geometric arrangement of the nourishment network is the framework for which the rest of the site is laid out. There are twenty-four spigots, twelve located near the shoreline and twelve near the dune ridge. As the slurry drifts from the spigot to the gulf dendritic patterns are etched into the sand. An array of sensors leverage site-specific metrics (depth, saturation) with externally accessed information (currents, tides, storms) to distribute the optimal quantity of sediment to deposit. The result is a striated and shifting shoreline, much like the northern ends of barrier islands on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The design proposes an incremental beach nourishment regime that steadily fortifies the dune ridge and is traumatic to the site’s ecology. Nevertheless, the design renders Treasure Island Beach’s formation visible and turns its structure into an experiential asset.