Marguerite Kreuzkamp

The Disappearing Shore

We love the sea. And regardless of the hurdles which try to block us, we still find a way to reach the water's edge. The Disappearing Shore asks what role landscape architecture has in designing edges which may soon slip from land to sea. Working at the intersection of coastal ecology, leisure culture, and speculative design, the thesis takes the Dunes Club — a private beach club determinedly sited on a dynamic barrier beach in Narragansett, Rhode Island — as its sandbox.

The club is emblematic of a tension running throughout coastal development: we build for love of the shore, then spend our resources fighting it. The typical response has been to hold the line — to armor the edge and hope the sand stays put. It rarely does. The beach disappears. Our love of it does not.

Every day the beach is different but not new. Everyday sand — one of the oldest materials on the planet — rearranges and yields a new form. Using the design principles of accumulation and drift, this project develops a speculative redesign of the site guided by a 2030 scenario in which hardened coastal structures are removed. It proposes coastal leisure and coastal resilience are not in conflict. Our approach to the sea might need to change. Our desire for the sea never does.

I want you to reach the beach. This thesis explores new pathways to get there.

Umbrellas
Graphite and pencil drawing of Dunes Club beach umbrellas and shore fragments on white, evoking leisure and coastal erosion.

Low Incoming Tide
Graphite Dust and Pencil drawing of a wide winter beach at low tide with Dunes Club and storm clouds on the horizon.

Drift Line Concept Section
Color pencil section of proposed dune and driftline connection from courts to Little Porch, Dunes Club, Narragansett

Detail Driftline Plan/Section
Detail Pencil and Ink drawing of proposed boardwalk and dune planting plan with section, Dunes Club, Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Beach Folly
Graphite drawing of a famous Scottish folly reimagined as emerging from sand dunes in Narragansett

Draft Site Plan & Program
Colored pencil site plan of Dunes Club showing proposed planting, circulation, and program without hardened coastal structures.

Concept Plan & Program
Colored pencil plan of early concept—testing different programming scenarios