2023 | Architectural and Urbanism Research + Design | Unbuilt

The uniqueness of tabby is based in its process of collecting local and accessible materials to produce concrete through a non-measured/estimated process. The origin of tabby as either the North African tabbi, or the Spanish tapia, has long been debated and no conclusive evidence exists that points towards either location. This clouded absence of origin displays the character of tabbi’s his- tory as both rooted and rootless; fluid and based in an intercultural exchange that removes tabby from the confinements of borders and a linear timeline of a beginning, middle, or end. In tabby’s move to the Western Hemisphere, its existence is blurred across socio-cultural divides as a symbol of militaristic power, the plantation economy, and the homes of the slaves who built both. In the United States, tabby was composed of oyster shells sourced from Native American middens: the remnants and discarded materials collected by Native Americans years prior, holding a record of indigenous practices and colonial erasure. The introduction of Portland cement and the end of slavery completely changed the prevalence of tabby which relied on free labor to produce the time intensive process of burning and collecting oyster shells.

However, despite its importance in American building culture, tabby is a material that has faded historically and materially. If one were to happen across a tabby structure today, its former marble like finish will most likely suffer from deterioration due to weather damage and neglect, and the broken walls and floors will reveal the oyster shells beneath. In response, tabby structures across the country are undergoing many different types of preservationist practices, whether that is archaeological digs and recordkeeping, the physical preservation of tabby structures, or the continued use of oysters as a construction material in the American South.

This project proposes a new approach to tabby preservation based on its connection to reuse and its subversion of cycles of capital by the enslaved and indigenous peoples associated with its labor. By archiving everyday practices involving oysters and tabby, I hope to rethink how we orient larger tactics of environmental and material resilience towards the stories and labor of marginalized peoples. In this context, material preservation becomes both a social and physical endeavor through the context of the American South and the shore becomes a place where processes of land, water, and people meet.

This project was completed as a thesis project for Masters degrees in architecture and urban planning at the Massachusetts Insititute of Technology. The thesis project was advised by Sheila Kennedy and Garnette Cadogan.