At Morningside Park in Miami, a new installation is testing a simple but urgent idea: What if a seawall could help heal the bay?
Researchers at the Institute of Environment recently installed a series of 3D-printed seawall tiles designed and developed at FIU's Robotics and Digital Fabrication Lab. Led by Shahin Vassigh, principal investigator on the project, this collaborative effort explores how coastal infrastructure can protect communities while supporting marine life.
Seawalls are a familiar part of South Florida's coastline. They help protect homes, roads and public spaces from flooding, erosion and storm surge, but traditional seawalls are usually flat, hard surfaces that leave little room for the organisms that once lived along natural shorelines.
BioCAP, short for Biodiversity Improvement by Optimizing Coastal Adaptation and Performance, takes a different approach. The system uses modular, interlocking tiles that can be attached to existing seawalls. Each tile is robotically printed and designed with grooves, ridges, crevices and small pools that create more complex surfaces for marine organisms to attach, shelter and grow.
"Our goal is to rethink what shoreline protection can look like in urban coastal areas," Vassigh said. "Instead of treating seawalls only as barriers, these tiles allow us to transform them into living surfaces that support marine life, improve habitat complexity and enhance coastal resilience."
The design responds to the different conditions found along a seawall. Near the upper tidal zone, the tiles can provide space for organisms such as crabs and limpets. In the middle zone, oysters and barnacles can attach to the textured surfaces. Below the waterline, the tiles can offer habitat for organisms such as sponges.
The installation also allows researchers to study how the tiles perform over time. Before being placed in the bay, the tiles were tested in a lab to evaluate how they interact with wave energy. According to the project team, the textured surfaces reduced wave energy reflection compared to bare concrete.
At Morningside Park, the tiles will now be monitored in real-world conditions. Researchers will study how marine life colonizes the surfaces and whether the added habitat can contribute to improved water quality and shoreline performance. Two of the installed tiles include sensors that will track conditions such as temperature, salinity and water quality.
For Miami and other coastal cities, the project offers a practical way to rethink infrastructure that is already part of the landscape. Instead of replacing seawalls, BioCAP explores how existing walls can be adapted to better work with the ecosystems around them.
The work combines robotic fabrication, biomimetic design, environmental monitoring and coastal science. It also reflects a larger shift in how researchers are approaching resilience, not only as protection from water, but as a chance to restore some of the ecological functions that help shorelines remain healthy.
As monitoring begins at Morningside Park, the project team will collect data on how the tiles perform and how marine organisms respond. The results could help inform future shoreline projects in South Florida and other coastal communities facing similar challenges.
BioCAP is an EPA-funded project led by Vassigh, Pezeshk, Bogosian and Ozer at FIU's Robotics and Digital Fabrication Lab, the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts and the FIU's Institute of Environment, with additional NOAA funding led by Todd Crowl and support from a dedicated group of interdisciplinary faculty field scientist Ben Binder and Nicholas Evans and many students.
