Coastal Defence Object Institute

July 14, 2011 12:44 PM

"Welcome to CDOI. This website is interested in the armorunit blocks of breakwater. Shape and the situation are taken in the photograph and researched."

Google auto-translated version

posted by alby (11 comments total)

Nice find, thanks! I've often wondered about these things.
posted by carter at 12:47 PM on July 14, 2011

'Riprap' is what they're usually called in English.
posted by bonehead at 12:49 PM on July 14, 2011

I can't decide if this or this is my favourite.
posted by alby at 12:55 PM on July 14, 2011

Some of the various types of artificial stone:
Accropodes
A-jacks
Dolos
Tetrapods
Xbloc
posted by bonehead at 12:55 PM on July 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

'Riprap' is what they're usually called in English.

A lot of the individual shapes have specific names: accropodes, akmons, dolosse, etc.
posted by alby at 12:55 PM on July 14, 2011

Protip: Rolling up tetrapods is a great way to progress faster in Katamari Damacy.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:08 PM on July 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

alby - the first one's cooler-looking, the second might provide better "reef habitat" (total speculation on my part).
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:35 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

With oceans on the rapid rise, we'll be seeing a lot more of these.
posted by stbalbach at 1:48 PM on July 14, 2011

Ironically, concrete is one of the biggest single-point contributors to CO2 emissions and thus global warming and sea level rise.
posted by stbalbach at 1:50 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

nothing about living shorelines? christ, people get into the twenty first century.
posted by eustatic at 5:47 PM on July 14, 2011

also, a coastal lines of defense approach, advocated in louisiana. the coast down here is unique in the world, but that doesn't mean there aren't lessons to share.
posted by eustatic at 5:51 PM on July 14, 2011