From Scar To Scaffold: The Afterlife of the Oil Pipeline for a Decarbonizing World

Abstract

With over 86,000 kilometers of crude oil pipelines—and more than 2.13 million kilometers of total oil and gas pipelines in the United States as of 2024—many segments are already corroded and aging, deeply embedded within urban and ecological systems that are increasingly endangered. As the global energy transition accelerates, this thesis investigates the future of these infrastructures, reconsidering the vast network of decommissioned and declining legacy pipelines not as obsolete relics, but as latent spatial assets for ecological repair, climate resilience, and socio-environmental justice. Moving beyond narratives of extraction and decay, the project repositions pipelines as linear territories of opportunity—capable of being retrofitted into new civic, ecological, and infrastructural frameworks. Central to the project is the transformation of the pipeline’s linear, extractive logic into a circular and connective one: a loop that is both finite and infinite, territorial and experiential. Focusing on a strategically selected loop of crude oil pipelines spanning 14 states, the thesis constructs a cartographic and architectural framework to reimagine these lines as sites of ecological repair, social infrastructure, and alternative energy distribution—where design, much like a biological scaffold, acts as a catalyst for regeneration along landscapes shaped by extraction. Through spatial analysis, typological classification, and mapping, five territorial conditions are defined along the pipeline loop, each offering distinct opportunities for intervention. These are tested through speculative design prototypes that transform the pipeline through operations of repurpose, renewable energy distribution, or ecological remediation. The interventions reframe invasive infrastructures into public and environmental assets—generating new spaces for inhabitation, production, and collective memory. Ultimately, the thesis proposes a post-carbon design paradigm rooted in ecological reciprocity, collective agency, and infrastructural care—revealing hidden energy landscapes and inscribing them with new values: resilience, equity, and repair.