Copelandia

Copelandia was an interdisciplinary experimental project focused on improving the physical health of both the people and the land in Cancer Alley, Louisiana. Through the use of mushrooms in various different forms (psilocybin and mycelium, primarily) we sought to design an infinitely customizable community-oriented installation to radically improve living conditions in this devastatingly diseased area.

Description

Category
Team

Timeline

Environmental Justice Travelling Installation

Group project with two 5th-year architecture students - Kieran Renfrow and Yasmeen Saab

4th year of Undergraduate Studies

Aug - Dec 2022

Our Thesis Statement

Through the intentional use of naturally occurring and locally sourced materials and implementation of low-tek methods, we can design an outdoor space to improve the environmental health of an area, and therefore improve the health of its people.

What is Cancer Alley?

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Cancer Alley is colloquially known as the strip along the Mississippi River in Louisiana where the petrochemical plants raises the local cancer rate 50 times higher than the national average.

These areas are populated by low-income black and brown people, who with no opportunity to move, become sick. The present-day area of Cancer Alley was once called “Plantation Country” in the 1800s where enslaved peoples were forced to labor. In addition, many of the petro plants that exist today were built on the grounds of former plantations and slave grave sites.

Diagram showing the locational relation between former plantations and current petrochemical plants along the Mississippi River. Cancer incidence rates in various counties are denoted by shades of brown.

A zoomed-in diagram of Baton Rouge which shows the overlap between black communities, low-income areas, and high unemployment rates.

Research Summary

Ancient use of naturally occuring pscycedelics

Natural psychedelics have long
been vital parts of indigenous
religious, cultural, and medicinal ceremonies. Despite the long history and research of its therapeutic and medical benefits, psilocybin and psilocin are listed in schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, the most heavily criminalized category considered to have a high potential for abuse.

Use of Psychedelics in modern day medicine

Negative stigma and severe federal restrictions on psychedelics significantly delayed advances in research.

A pilot study from UCLA in 2004 reignited interest in psilocybin therapy following their findings on late-stage cancer patients. Psilocybin has now successfully treated individuals with treatment- resistant depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and other mental health disorders, as well as alleviating death-related anxiety in individuals with cancer.

Low-tek and Indigenous construction methods

To ensure that our installation was easily accessible to the communities it was intended to help, we looked toward indigenous construction techniques and natural material use. The Choctaw architectural methods, in particular, were a great source of influence; Choctaw dwellings were constructed from a skeletal system of logs, and subsequently covered in grasses and branches.

Mushrooms: In Mind and In Earth

This diagram illustrates the therapeutic effects of medically induced psilocybin on cancer patients in a previous clinical study. Serotonin levels are indicated on the y-axis, while time is shown on the x-axis.

This diagram covers the biological practice of 'mycomediation' and how it would function as a team player in our installation. This gives a visual representation of the mushroom's ability to heal the soil with natural processes.

Group Ideation

Ideating in a group setting was one of the most rewarding parts of the project. The three of us had our hands in every stage of the process, and these scanned analog and digital sketches result from weeks of collaborative sketching out our ideas in real time.

Our Trellis Design

A full scale 4x2x8 foot section model!