Resilient Design
Cities Seek Technology to Adapt for Climate Change Risks and Challenges
As 1.4 million people move to cities each week, local abilities to keep residents safe can become strained, increasing the risk of disasters, warned the United Nations secretary-general. “The answer is to build resilience to storms, floods, earthquakes, fires, pandemics and economic crises,” said Antonio Guterres in a message for World Cities Day. Read the […]
“Vertical Village” Built of Wood to Rise in Paris
Sou Fujimoto, Nicolas Laisne and Dimitri Roussel have won a competition to design a striking new mixed-use development as a counterpoint to Paris’ urban sprawl. Titled “Vertical Village,” the 164-foot-tall tower will be built almost entirely of timber, and it will serve as a “new gateway” to the east suburb Rosny-sous-Bois. The nearly 400-foot-long timber-framed […]
DFA’s flood-proof towers could survive six feet of sea level rise in Manhattan
New York-based architecture firm DFA just unveiled plans for 19 cylindrical apartment towers that can survive six feet of sea level rise at Manhattan’s Pier 40. The towers are wrapped in lattice facades with lots of vegetation, and they’re designed to address the city’s lack of affordable housing and flood-resistant buildings. Read the […]
Resilient Design Saves $6 for Every $1 Spent
A National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) study determined that every federal dollar spent on disaster resiliency and mitigation can save the U.S. an average of six dollars on disaster recovery. Read the entire article at CITYLAB. NIBS studied mitigation measures such as demolishing flood-prone homes; using hurricane shutters and other wind-resistant strategies; shoring up building […]
Sustainable “Sand Dune” Emerges from the Desert
Located in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Bee’ah headquarters’ dune-like design is both inspired by, and intended to blend in with, the local desert landscape. It will serve a Middle East environmental waste management company and is slated for LEED Platinum (a green building standard) certification. Read the entire article at New Atlas. Recycled building […]
Babcock Ranch – the First Solar Town in the U.S.
Imagine a community integrated into a nature preserve with 50 miles of hiking and biking trails. From home you can easily walk to town, to a trail head or to a series of lakes. The town is complete with schools and health care facilities as well as community gardens, a five acre farm and a […]
Hong Kong’s Multi-Decade Creative Solutions for Water Management
Read the entire article at CitiScope. When it comes to water, Hong Kong is in a paradoxical situation. This city of more than 7 million people has few reliable sources of drinking water. There’s no major river or natural lake to draw from. Groundwater is scarce and difficult to reach. And the city’s hilly terrain […]
Climate Change as a Design Problem
Read the entire article at The New York Times. Many discussions of climate change begin at the water’s edge, in cities and towns where the rising ocean is an existential threat, or will be soon. But when he chose to embark on a series on the topic, Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times’s architecture critic, […]
San Francisco Design Teams Compete for Best Solutions to Sea Level Rise
Read the entire article at The San Francisco Chronicle. An ambitious design competition that seeks to make the Bay Area a model for how to prepare for sea-level rise kicks off this week. The competition, dubbed “Resilient by Design,” will select 10 interdisciplinary teams to tackle 10 sites around the bay, with at least one […]
