Climate change is a daily challenge that we are faced with, it has become a part of our lives and is altering how we live. Architecture plays a vital role in life and it is crucial for architecture to be able to adapt to the climate conditions that may arise. A large percentage of the population living near coastal cities are faced with dangers of sea level rise, flooding, and coastal storms. Architects must design for the people within these cities or else their lives will be lost.
Designers understand the catastrophic we are currently facing and are finding innovative ways to protect our cities. From rebuilding the coastal lines to making cities to imitate being a sponge. These solutions all play an important role in the future generations, each design can not work independently from each other and must work cohesively in order to have a resilient city.
This thesis explores the possibility of having a dense neighborhood adjacent to a city. This neighborhood is purely independent from the main city utilities so that if a major event did occur then no systems will be interrupted. Adaptable architecture is able to change over time and with the growth of population. The design goal is to offer an optimal living option for people, the neighborhood is designed to be able to grow with a family and offer aging in place options while continuously growing over time. The structure is able to grow by using a modular pontoon system that can be attached to another module to create an interconnected city. These modules are Biocrete structures that contain the systems and utilities for a building to function giving full flexibility of what can be constructed on top.
Since the city is forever growing the vertical core acts as a home for a mobile crane to be attached and assist with the development of residential units or the larger urban-scape. This crane can also be positioned on a small mobile barge that floats around the city to serve any location at a given time. / Master of Architecture / Architecture must be adaptable in a climate changing environment otherwise there will be catastrophic failure in society. Coastal cities are faced with the most climate challenges with sea level rise, flooding, storm surge, hurricanes, tsunami's, etc. Due to these challenges it is vital to have architecture to be resilient and still remain functional after a storm.
The main challenge that is explored is how can we overcome the losses that are caused by flooding in coastal cities. This exploration suggests the idea of floating urbanization that is completely independent from the city and is able to adapt with any sea level elevation.
The initial response to flooding is how can we keep the water out when in reality water cannot be contained over a long period of time. Instead, the question should be how can we live with water? The solution is to literally live with it, to design a city that floats on it and is able to move with the sea level. This eliminates the worry about your home being flooded and offers another option of living. This city is a fully adaptable structure that grows with families and the population at the same time. Each residential unit offers modular components to allow for the unit to expand given the size of the family, these residential modules sit on top a floating modular pontoon that can then be attached to another pontoon to allow the city to grow horizontally.
This idea is not foreign nor new, it has been a way of living for some people for many years from a new single family home in Denmark to a whole floating village in Peru. It is not a new concept but it will be a more frequent design choice as climate change becomes more prevalent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119340 |
| Date | 06 June 2024 |
| Creators | Plasencia, Jacob |
| Contributors | Architecture, Wheeler, Joseph H., Vorster, Clive R., Zesk, Walter |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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