Reefs are the most important marine ecosystems that support the majority of marine life in our oceans for both temporary and permanent shelter, refuge and food supply. However, reef ecosystems around the world are disappearing and artificial reef structures are an opportunity to help restore them.

This project contributed to the field of artificial reefs, by designing a surface pattern on both millimeter and centimeter scale, that aims to enhance and support biodiversity on the large concrete “ReefBlocks”, by the company Reefy. That serve as both artificial reefs and as functional infrastructure, such as breakwaters and dams.

In an extensive literature research, information on marine environments was collected and three main types of inhabitants that can be found in reef communities were identified, including only those that interact with hard substrates like the ReefBlock. The three different inhabitant types were distinguished based on their unique role within ecosystems, which they need to grow, stay balanced and provide the necessary ecosystem functions.

To understand the ecological requirements for the pattern design, existing knowledge on increasing biodiversity with artificial reef substrates was researched and summarized in a micro marine spatial plan on the scale of an entire ReefBlock. The addition of crevices and pits of varying sizes on centimeter-scale and grooves on millimeter-scale were concluded as the main crucial design features that need to be reflected by the final pattern design.

A design vision to aim for biomimicry of lobed brain corals was formulated for the aesthetics of the proposed pattern design. As brain coral patterns have a visually organic complexity and flexibility that allows for the natural implementation of the identified crucial design features. In order to achieve the pattern design vision that meets all the collected ecological, stakeholder and production requirements, a design toolset was developed that combines the power of generative art with the power of parametric design.

The generative art tool allows the semi-automatic creation of lobed brain coral patterns in a similar process to how actual brain corals, and many other examples in nature, receive their pattern from, in a so-called reaction-diffusion system.

With the generative art tool, a black and white 2D image is generated, which is then used as the input variable for the parametric tool. Which directly translates the 2D image into a perfect 3D surface pattern. This method ensures that the pattern design always meets the various production requirements.

In order to support the choice for the aesthetically best-rated design by the general public, a survey with 60 respondents was conducted with questions based on the stakeholder requirements.

In order to validate the effectiveness of the pattern design within the timeframe of this project, a six weeks lab test was conducted using concrete prototypes of the pattern design and microalgae. The test showed promising results for meeting the defined ecological requirements.

Lastly, a rubber form liner was produced in order to help Reefy along with future field tests with the proposed pattern design, in order to validate the conclusions and insights gained in this graduation project, and in real marine environments, for a much longer period of time.
The design toolset was initially created to support the iterative design process and helped to quickly try, test and compare a multitude of designs. But in the end, this toolset has proven to be very valuable for future use by Reefy as they plan on extending their product line with smaller-scale wall panels and for potential adjustments to the proposed pattern design based on their field tests.