TESTBED
FIRST PLACE WINNER
[ AGENCY - AGENCY ] - TEI CARPENTER ARIANNA DEANNE ASHELY KUO
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, USA
Testbed transforms the WIPP area into a climate engineering experiment site to be initially managed by the Department of Energy. Rather than communicating a warning through monument or obstacle, the project manipulates the geology of the site itself by setting in motion an open-ended assemblage of processes that generate an entangled scientific earthwork comprised of agitated hybrid formations, neither natural nor human-made.
The project deploys an array of carbon dioxide capturing strategies across the WIPP site, including ex situ mineral sequestration, in situ geologic storage, and direct air capture farms, to generate an active marker system that passively stores one type of energetic byproduct—carbon dioxide—in the surface above another: the transuranic waste secured below. By using climate engineering to create a new geology, Testbed takes advantage of the site’s already compromised condition to encumber it through experimentation, doubling down on disturbance to ensure the site will remain undisturbed. Through their continued growth and transformation over time, these new geological forms mark the site as something deeply strange and unfamiliar, communicating its otherness by intervening in fundamental processes.
The project deploys an array of carbon dioxide capturing strategies across the WIPP site, including ex situ mineral sequestration, in situ geologic storage, and direct air capture farms, to generate an active marker system that passively stores one type of energetic byproduct—carbon dioxide—in the surface above another: the transuranic waste secured below. By using climate engineering to create a new geology, Testbed takes advantage of the site’s already compromised condition to encumber it through experimentation, doubling down on disturbance to ensure the site will remain undisturbed. Through their continued growth and transformation over time, these new geological forms mark the site as something deeply strange and unfamiliar, communicating its otherness by intervening in fundamental processes.
Organization of Carbon Dioxide Capturing Strategies
Technologies and Processes
EVAPORATION PONDS
Brine extraction in the Salado formation is instrumentalized to prevent known geologic and geohydrologic processes from taking place that might breach the integrity of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Repository (WIPP). These threatening processes include the potential dissolution of Salado salt necessary to collapse and seal the Repository and the inadvertent flow of pressurized brine into the Repository. To control these unwanted possibilities, wells are drilled at point locations to pump brine and groundwater up and out of the Salado formation and into Evaporation Ponds, similar in configuration to nearby potash mines. (“WIPP-Related Geological Issues,” New Mexico Geological Society)
DIRECT AIR CAPTURE FARMS
This emerging building-scale carbon management technology is aggregated on the site to capture carbon dioxide from atmospheric air, much like an artificial tree. As a stand-alone system it uses binding chemicals to filter carbon dioxide from the air, which in its purified state can then be sequestered into adjacent geologic formations on the site. (Global Thermostat)
IN SITU GEOLOGIC CARBON SEQUESTRATION
Extracted carbon dioxide from the nearby Direct Air Capture Farms and elsewhere is compressed into a fluid state and carefully injected deep underground into permeable geologic strata, such as the limestone in the Brushy Canyon formation. This injected carbon dioxide is then trapped and sealed by impermeable overlain formations, thereby secured within the deep geologic formation and prevented from entering the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. (“The Concept of Geologic Carbon Sequestration,” United States Geological Survey)
EX SITU MINERAL SEQUESTRATION - OLIVINE
Olivine, a naturally occurring and abundant mineral, reacts with carbon dioxide to form inert and solid carbonate minerals (magnesite) that store carbon dioxide. Given sufficient testing, storage of carbon dioxide in these carbonate minerals could potentially become a safer and more easily monitored alternative to in situ geologic carbon sequestration. To carry out such tests, olivine-rich rocks are quarried and transported to the Testbed where they are agitated with salt and brine water, which transport carbon dioxide and catalyze the carbon sequestration process. (“Carbon Sequestration: Mineral Carbonation in Periodite for CO2 Capture and Storage,” Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
EX SITU MINERAL SEQUESTRATION - BASALT
Basalt, similar to olivine, is also a naturally occurring and abundant mineral that reacts with carbon dioxide to form inert and solid carbonate minerals. A porous volcanic rock, basalt contains olivine and feldspar and has a slower carbonation period than olivine. Quarried basalt is transported to the Testbed, whereupon carbon dioxide is pumped into its porous cavities, slowly creating solid carbonate minerals, like calcite, capable of capturing and storing the gas. (“Carbon Sequestration: Mineral Carbonation in Periodite for CO2 Capture and Storage,” Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Brine extraction in the Salado formation is instrumentalized to prevent known geologic and geohydrologic processes from taking place that might breach the integrity of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Repository (WIPP). These threatening processes include the potential dissolution of Salado salt necessary to collapse and seal the Repository and the inadvertent flow of pressurized brine into the Repository. To control these unwanted possibilities, wells are drilled at point locations to pump brine and groundwater up and out of the Salado formation and into Evaporation Ponds, similar in configuration to nearby potash mines. (“WIPP-Related Geological Issues,” New Mexico Geological Society)
DIRECT AIR CAPTURE FARMS
This emerging building-scale carbon management technology is aggregated on the site to capture carbon dioxide from atmospheric air, much like an artificial tree. As a stand-alone system it uses binding chemicals to filter carbon dioxide from the air, which in its purified state can then be sequestered into adjacent geologic formations on the site. (Global Thermostat)
IN SITU GEOLOGIC CARBON SEQUESTRATION
Extracted carbon dioxide from the nearby Direct Air Capture Farms and elsewhere is compressed into a fluid state and carefully injected deep underground into permeable geologic strata, such as the limestone in the Brushy Canyon formation. This injected carbon dioxide is then trapped and sealed by impermeable overlain formations, thereby secured within the deep geologic formation and prevented from entering the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. (“The Concept of Geologic Carbon Sequestration,” United States Geological Survey)
EX SITU MINERAL SEQUESTRATION - OLIVINE
Olivine, a naturally occurring and abundant mineral, reacts with carbon dioxide to form inert and solid carbonate minerals (magnesite) that store carbon dioxide. Given sufficient testing, storage of carbon dioxide in these carbonate minerals could potentially become a safer and more easily monitored alternative to in situ geologic carbon sequestration. To carry out such tests, olivine-rich rocks are quarried and transported to the Testbed where they are agitated with salt and brine water, which transport carbon dioxide and catalyze the carbon sequestration process. (“Carbon Sequestration: Mineral Carbonation in Periodite for CO2 Capture and Storage,” Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
EX SITU MINERAL SEQUESTRATION - BASALT
Basalt, similar to olivine, is also a naturally occurring and abundant mineral that reacts with carbon dioxide to form inert and solid carbonate minerals. A porous volcanic rock, basalt contains olivine and feldspar and has a slower carbonation period than olivine. Quarried basalt is transported to the Testbed, whereupon carbon dioxide is pumped into its porous cavities, slowly creating solid carbonate minerals, like calcite, capable of capturing and storing the gas. (“Carbon Sequestration: Mineral Carbonation in Periodite for CO2 Capture and Storage,” Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
7017: 5,000-Year Geologic Axonometric Projection (12,000’ H x 12,000’ W x 9,500’ D)
2092: 75-Year Plan Projection to the Sealing and Isolation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
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7017: 5,000-Year Plan Projection Showing Testbed Processes Underway
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Testbed Perspective in 7017
DESIGNER BIO
Tei Carpenter is an architectural designer, educator and founder of Brooklyn based design studio Agency—Agency. The studio’s recently completed work includes a new non-profit headquarters in downtown Houston and a winning entry for LA+ Journal’s island competition. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and Director of the Waste Initiative, an applied research and design platform.
Carpenter’s design and research work into architecture’s entanglement with emerging natures has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and has been exhibited at the Storefront for Art and Architecture and at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Recent design work and writing have appeared in Artforum, Cite, Pidgin, and Plat. Previously she has taught at Brown University, Cornell University, City College of New York and at Rice University as the Wortham Visiting Lecturer. Carpenter earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Brown University and her Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University where she was awarded the Howard Crosby Butler Traveling Fellowship in Architecture.
website: agency-agency.us/
Tei Carpenter is an architectural designer, educator and founder of Brooklyn based design studio Agency—Agency. The studio’s recently completed work includes a new non-profit headquarters in downtown Houston and a winning entry for LA+ Journal’s island competition. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and Director of the Waste Initiative, an applied research and design platform.
Carpenter’s design and research work into architecture’s entanglement with emerging natures has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and has been exhibited at the Storefront for Art and Architecture and at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Recent design work and writing have appeared in Artforum, Cite, Pidgin, and Plat. Previously she has taught at Brown University, Cornell University, City College of New York and at Rice University as the Wortham Visiting Lecturer. Carpenter earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Brown University and her Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University where she was awarded the Howard Crosby Butler Traveling Fellowship in Architecture.
website: agency-agency.us/