Despite having the potential of being a durable building material, Biorock, a form of calcium carbonate formed by the electro-accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater, has never been applied on an architectural scale due to its slow accretion process. Until today, it has been mainly used for the restoration of coral reefs which do not maximise the strength of this material. However, in the context of marginalized and informal communities, this natural material accretion can be a sustainable procedure to gain building material resources.

This thesis plays out the possible narrative of this slow accruing material process in the incrementally submerged coastline of Jakarta. While the government have chosen to relocate the capital, many still have to call Jakarta home. Economic gridlocked and dis-empowered governess create the inevitable reliance on community and alternative source of funding infrastructure development.

Local communities will be empowered to “grow” a new city for habitation using Biorock. Urban structures with basic communal, housing and aquaculture facilities will be established using Biorock as the main building structure, which would be harvested, transported and assembled over a period of 100 years with processes of accretion and unit aggregation.