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Flood Adaptive Architecture - New York City Water Front Development

Sustainable project by Yijun Ooi, climate resilient architecture researcher
Published on December 18, 2020

About author / sustainable architecture designer : Yijun Ooi, also known as Aston Yijun, an active / formal architectural research designer and planner based on issue and topic of " Global Warming, Flood- adaptive architecture, sustainable architecture and climate resilient architecture for the future as contribution for our future generation in environmental concern.

Climate change issue of rising sea levels and natural disaster have stricken numerous coastal areas around the world. Flooding is increasing in many metropolitan areas around the world and have resulted to serious economy and social impact.

The aim of the publication is to share about the global warming issue to the world, as an architecture designer I suggest that we have the responsibility to contribute to the environment and start protecting it instead of hurting it by fill in more land and build countless development which cause a lot of harmful attempt to the mother nature.

This design proposal would like to explore possibility in the future architecture on water. 2017 has suggested that despite our civilization’s history of trying to drain and fight against wet landscapes for the past thousand years, the best move for the future world would be to “let the water in and even make friends with the water” New York City (NYC) is a city on the water. The river and harbor have worked to its advantage, bringing it speedy transportation and pleasant temperatures.

However, the next coming years may not be as smooth as the past. Global warming, caused by the release of carbon-dioxide pollution into the atmosphere, will cause the seas to rise and the storms to intensify around the city. A new study from an all-star list of climate scientists attempts to estimate how a few of climate change’s symptoms—higher seas, large storm surge, and more intense hurricanes—will intersect in New York over the next 300 years.

Status: Unbuilt
Location: Red Hook, New York, USA
My Role: Architecture design, Urban Planning, Landscape Design, waterfront design

For this proposal, a waterfront site in New York City which is affected by flood will

The aim of the thesis is to experiment new climate-resilient design in urban waterfront that reduce impact and explore opportunity in flood related climate issue. he study will first analyze the flooding issues and affected waterfront development in New York City.

Obviously, New York is now heavily relying on an engineering resilience approach to cope with the risk of flooding, with a developed drainage network, channelizing river, to stop the water coming in.

Secondly, case studies on flood adaptable architecture will be conducted and analyzed. Besides that, a comprehensive site analysis and synthesis will be made to identify the best solution for the site. But when climate change is getting worse with intense rainfall, the engineering approach may not be adequate to cope with the risk. Concurrently, urban development in NYC is growing in a very fast pace and land is getting more and more limited. Yet, water is cheaper than land, so why don’t we take opportunity of that and propose innovative design solution on water?

The result of the thesis will also include design drawings and design approaches. Reclaimed land will be harmful to the environment especially to the water / coast which will destroy the ecosystem and marine life.

The proposal is aiming to build an eco-friendly yet sustainable architecture which can marvelously adapt to the site.

The site analysis required to analyze the urban issue & global crisis on the urban city -New York through detail study of the population density, annual flooding crisis, lack of greenery park issue, and affordability rental issue in real estate industry, New York City.

Design Process 1, taking advantage of abandoned pier waterfront land to be convert into an useful architecture spaces to serve the community.

Design Process 2, with respect to surrounding site forces, the site boundary angle and perimeter behaviour, the pier's perimeter shape was shifted with an angle of 30 degree.

Design Process 3, to maximize the land availability for the building blocks, the extension is being added about 80m to accommodate more activities and architecture spaces.

Design Process 4, to combat the sea water level rising issue, the circulation ground level is designed to raise and reduce as flood-adaptive architecture which can function well even if the water level is rising.

Design Process 5, the floating structure is being added at the perimeter of extended platform required to support the adding building blocks as flood-adaptive buildings which it will raise up by respond to the rise of sea water level.

Design Process 6, the building zoning's massing is being added on top of floating structures which will convert into residential blocks with linear design principle towards the water as pier waterfront architecture development.

Design Process 7, the building's massing block is being shifted, twisted towards the site forces context, as well as provide more sea view for the unit blocks at the back, as well as providing more pocket spaces around the site.

Design Process 8, the building massing blocks is being shifted and transform into many blocks which shift on adjacent side to create small pocket spaces in between as balconies and greenery for the residential users.

Design Process 9, the housing modular units is being transform into more refined design shaped which featuring with 2 types of units : 2 bedroom & 3 bedroom units as affordable housing concept / co-living to the neighborhood.

Design Process 10, the circulation is then being adjusted to fill the block massing more comprehensively and create more stepping steps and part of the architectural input as design features which allow more different activities to being carry out.

Design Process 11, the sustainable features such as water harvesting features & solar absorbing panels is being added to the architecture which strategically to provide more sustainable energy and aiming to reduce carbon footprint.

Design Process 12, the entire architecture's aim is to provide a flood-adaptive solution to combat the urban issue, include affordable housing issue, water level rising issue, lack of greenery issue, compact housing issue, as a overall climate resilient architecture.