Archinect - News

Turenscape's 'floating forest' reshapes a former wasteland into a multifunctional urban landscape

2023-01-11T12:20:00-05:00

Beijing-based landscape architecture firm Turenscape has completed the transformation of a former 126-acre dumping ground into a “dreamlike floating forest” in the eastern Chinese city of Nanchang.

The new Fish Tail Park operates a triple function as a habitat for wildlife, a recreational area for the city, and a stormwater regulator, creating what the design team calls a “replicable model of designed urban nature for regions with monsoon or variable climates that can address the multiple challenges of floods, habitat restoration, and recreational demands.”

Image credit: Turenscape

To create the landscape, the team recycled coal ash previously dumped on the site, mixing it with dirt from fish pond dykes to create numerous islets. At the same time, a new lake was created to accommodate over 35 million cubic feet of stormwater inflow. In anticipation of fluctuating water levels, a selection of native trees and wetland plants capable of surviving the varying conditions have been plante...

Subway flooding is getting worse as a result of extreme weather

2021-07-27T12:45:00-04:00

Subway systems around the world are struggling to adapt to an era of extreme weather brought on by climate change. Their designs, many based on the expectations of another era, are being overwhelmed, and investment in upgrades could be squeezed by a drop in ridership brought on by the pandemic.

New York is still repairing damages to its subway system caused nearly a decade ago by Hurricane Sandy as the installation of certain protective also lags behind schedule. Coastal cities like New York and Boston are facing nine-digit pricetags as they prepare their populations for climate change in earnest.

12 people died aboard a flooded subway car last week in Zhengzhou, China. London underground riders have been rained out as well.

The New York Times has more on the rising concern here.

Disclosing flood risk on real estate websites remains controversial

2020-08-26T12:46:00-04:00

Realtor.com has become the first site to disclose information about a home's flood risk and how climate change could increase that risk in the coming decades, potentially signaling a major shift in consumers' access to information about climate threats. [...] Still, other websites such as Redfin, Zillow and Trulia have no plans to share information about flooding with users [...] say home sellers are reluctant to publish flood risk information, since it could decrease their home's value.

New Google Arts & Culture initiative documents the threat of climate change to Unesco World Heritage sites

2020-02-06T16:14:00-05:00

Google Arts & Culture has launched a new online initiative calling attention to five Unesco World Heritage sites under threat from climate change. The Heritage on the Edge series reveals how rising sea levels, coastal erosion and extreme weather patterns are endangering landmarks across the world [...].

The five threatened Unesco World Heritage sites featured in the online Heritage on the Edge exhibit are Easter Island's iconic moai statues of Rapa Nui; the Old and New Towns of Scotland's capital Edinburgh; the flood-prone mosque city of Bagerhat in Bangladesh; Tanzania's port city of Kilwa Kisiwani endangered by coastal erosion; and the pre-Columbian adobe metropolis of Chan Chan, Peruvian at risk of drought and storms.

Image via Heritage on the Edge

"Above all, the project is a call to action," writes Professor Dr. Toshiyuki Kono, President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, in a recent Google blog post. "Heritage on the Edge collects stories of loss, but also of hope and resilience. They remind us that all our cultural heritage, including these iconic World Heritage Sites, are more than just tourist destinations. They are places of great national, spiritual and cultural significance."

Heritage on the Edge. Video via Google Arts & Culture on YouTube.

"The realit...

New report urges Venice to get its climate change act together

2019-07-17T07:00:00-04:00

Venice is full of water, Venice floods, the climate is visibly changing, and sea levels are rising, so you would expect Venice, of all places, to have an official strategy for what to do about it—but you would be wrong. The management plans produced by the City of Venice for Unesco in 2013 and 2018 barely mention the subject and twice, in 2016 and 2019, Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has failed to call them out on this astonishing failing.

"We are used to thinking that, given enough will and money, there is a solution to everything, but this report says that we must get used to the idea that in many cases there will be no solution," writes a frustrated Anna Somers Cocks for The Art Newspaper and explains how a new report by the International Council on Museums and Sites (Icomos) could lay out an urgently needed roadmap for climate change action for cultural heritage sites. "It emphasises again and again: collaborate, share knowledge and remedies, educate, and—above all—plan ahead. Then only may we be able to mitigate the approaching catastrophe."

In other recent Venice-related news: the 17th International Architecture Exhibition just announced a guiding vision for the 2020 Venice Biennale.

Why is Florida's coastal real estate still booming despite rising levels?

2019-02-20T13:49:00-05:00

In Florida, you will see a bewildering mix of optimism, opportunism and denial in the real estate market: luxury condominiums going up in flood-prone South Beach, and property values rising in the vulnerable Keys, post-Hurricane Irma. And though the House of Representatives passed a bill to require real estate agents to disclose flood risks, the Senate has not reviewed it, and a culture of “systemic, fraudulent nondisclosure” persists in high flood risk areas.

As part of her Climate Changed series for The Guardian, Megan Mayhew Bergman investigates the reluctance of Florida's condominium boom (and the wealthy investors behind it) to cool it a bit on new developments in the face of projected climate change-related devastation.

"Humans tend to respond to immediate threats and financial consequences – and coastal real estate, especially in Florida, may be on the cusp of delivering that harsh wake-up call," writes Mayhew Bergman. "The peninsula has outsized exposure: nearly 2 million people live in coastal cities. On the list of the 20 urban areas in America that will suffer the most from rising seas, Florida has five: St Petersburg, Tampa, Miami, Miami Beach and Panama City. In 2016, Zillow predicted that one out of eight homes in Florida would be underwater by 2100, a loss of $413bn in property."

Earth, water, wind & fire: making homes disaster-proof

2018-10-10T14:25:00-04:00

Some of the world's most scenic locations for luxury homes — beachfronts, forests, mountains — are also prone to disaster: hurricanes and floods, wildfires and earthquakes. Architects and designers are increasingly tasked with creating gorgeous homes that are also able to stand up to nature's whims.

It shouldn't have to take another reminder from the United Nations that a lot more climate change-related extreme weather scenarios will be heading our way in the coming decades to finally take disaster preparedness into consideration when designing homes.

Rising sea levels threaten Miami’s existence—from above and below ground

2018-08-29T19:50:00-04:00

From ground level, greater Miami looks like any American megacity—a mostly dry expanse of buildings, roads, and lawns, sprinkled with the occasional canal or ornamental lake. But from above, the proportions of water and land are reversed. [...] Barring a stupendous reversal in greenhouse gas emissions, the rising Atlantic will cover much of Miami by the end of this century. The economic effects will be devastating [...].

Bloomberg reporter Christopher Flavelle takes a deep dive into the vast, intricate, and highly fragile network of natural aquifers and man-made infrastructure that has kept Miami (mostly) dry and equipped with fresh drinking water. But for how much longer?

Go with the flow: the case for amphibious architecture

2018-01-10T15:27:00-05:00

Unlike traditional buildings, amphibious structures are not static; they respond to floods like ships to a rising tide, floating on the water’s surface. [...] Amphibiation may be an unconventional strategy, but it reflects a growing consensus that, at a time of climatic volatility, people can’t simply fight against water; they have to learn to live with it.

The New Yorker features Elizabeth English, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo and founder of the Buoyant Foundation Project which seeks to promote the benefits of amphibious architecture for homes in flood-prone areas and communities that will experience the effects of rising sea levels resulting from climate change.
"The water gets to do what the water wants to do," English says. "It’s not a confrontation with Mother Nature—it’s an acceptance of Mother Nature."

With more severe weather events on the horizon, it's time to elevate our homes

2017-12-19T13:52:00-05:00

We can build homes to sit above flood waters so people can ride out the Harveys of the future, but it won’t be easy or cheap. [...] More than a million people live in the 100- and 500-year flood zones across the Houston area, and hundreds of thousands more do in other U.S. cities, including Miami and New York. Harris County’s move conforms with the advice of building engineers, climate experts, and the insurance industry.

How a 1980s flood regulation protected many newer homes in Houston during Hurricane Harvey

2017-11-08T14:13:00-05:00

No other major metropolitan area in the U.S. has grown faster than Houston over the last decade, with a significant portion of new construction occurring in areas that the federal government considers prone to flooding. But much of that new real estate in those zones did just fine, a Times analysis has found.

The City of Houston, notorious for its relative lack of zoning codes, did in fact take future flooding into account and mandated that new homes were to be built at least 12 inches above flood levels predicted by the federal government. "The 1985 regulation and others that followed," the LA Times writes, "proved widely effective in their biggest test to date — the record-setting rains of Harvey."

Tampa Bay braces for impact of the storm that might destroy it

2017-09-07T15:12:00-04:00

Tampa Bay is mesmerizing, with 700 miles of shoreline and some of the finest white sand beaches in the nation. But analysts say the metropolitan area is the most vulnerable in the United States to flooding and damage if a major hurricane ever scores a direct hit. A Boston firm that analyzes potential catastrophic damage reported that the region would lose $175 billion in a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina. A World Bank study called Tampa Bay one of the 10 most at-risk areas on the globe.

Published more than a month ago, long before Hurricane Irma was even on anyone's forecast, this piece by Washington Post writer Darryl Fears tells the tale of Tampa Bay as a seeming paradise, with its 4 millions residents, hot real estate market, lofty development ambitions, construction boom — and the big storm that will, maybe, hit one day and put it all in peril.

Now with Irma leaving a trail of destruction in the Northern Caribbean and heading straight for the Florida peninsula, Fears just sat down for an interview with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal: "[...] the big problem with this hurricane and with Tampa, St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, is sea level rise. And sea level rise is not a big deal in and of itself because it takes so long to build. But when you add wind, you add surge, that creates a wave, just a wall of water."

How Houston's absence of zoning code might have contributed to Harvey's devastating consequences

2017-08-30T18:11:00-04:00

Houston calls itself “the city with no limits” to convey the promise of boundless opportunity. But it also is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way.

Hurricane Harvey is drawing renewed scrutiny to Houston's 'Wild West' approach to planning and its unusual system for managing floodwater that, according to environmentalists, greatly diminishes land's natural ability to absorb water.

While local officials have defended the city's take on development claiming that the record-shattering rainfall on Houston and its surrounding area this week would have wreaked havoc even if stricter building limits were implemented, it's hard to argue that the damage could have been significantly reduced with more stringent building codes. According to the Washington Post, in the past, proposals for large-scale flood-control projects envisioned in the wake of Hurricane Ike in 2008 stalled. City residents have voted three times not to enact a zoning code, most recently in 1993.

Instead of imposing restrictions on what property owners can do with their land, Houston has attempted to engineer a solution to drainage—a network of reservoirs, bayous and, a...

Will there be enough construction workers to rebuild post-flood Houston?

2017-08-29T12:44:00-04:00

Rain continues to fall in Houston, Texas, a city which may see up to 50 inches of precipitation over a span of five days thanks to the aftereffects of Hurricane Harvey. Unfortunately, the continued flooding has been exacerbated due to some decades-long, head-in-the-sand urban planning, the history of which is detailed in this comprehensive ProPublica piece. (Spoiler: it turns out paving over natural flood zones with asphalt and concrete, as well as replacing the comprehensive root systems of switchgrass with the comparatively shallow root systems of suburban lawns, gives water few places to go.)

Houston, 2017. Image: @ohcami_ via Twitter

As devastating as current conditions must be to homeowners who built in the surprisingly quick to deliver "500-Year Flood Plain," Houston's drier future isn't looking great, either. Thanks to the Trump Administration's widespread anti-immigration policy, there's likely to be a significant shortage of construction workers to rebuild the U.S.' fourth ...

Trump revoked Obama's executive order on higher standards for flood protection two weeks before Hurricane Harvey

2017-08-28T14:10:00-04:00

Hurricane Harvey has been battering the Gulf Coast for days bringing in record floodwaters devastating much of southeast Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated that 30,000 people are in need of emergency shelter and more than 450,000 will need the help of federal aid for recovery after the devastation. The catastrophic flooding, which officials are calling the worst in the state's history, has already lead to at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.

Two weeks before the storm, President Trump revoked an executive order signed by former president Barack Obama in 2015 that aimed to make infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change. The Obama-era regulation meant that roads, building and other infrastructure projects needed to be built to withstand the effects of climate change such as stronger downpours, rising sea levels, and flooding. However, as part of Trump's executive order signed several weeks ago, he rolled back the Federal Flood Ri...

Trump to reverse Obama’s Federal Flood Risk Management Standard aimed at planning for climate change

2017-08-16T13:17:00-04:00

The White House confirmed that the order issued Tuesday would revoke an earlier executive order by former President Barack Obama that required recipients of federal funds to strongly consider risk-management standards when building in flood zones, including measures such as elevating structures from the reach of rising water.

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would streamline the approval process for building infrastructure such as roads, bridges and offices by eliminating a planning step related to climate change and flood dangers.

Trump's new order will weaken environmental standards that guard against flood risk, saddling the federal government with the burden of paying for flood damage in the future. The executive order also promised “one Federal decision” for major infrastructure projects and setting a two-year goal for completion of permitting processes. Trump said every project would be assigned to a lead agency that would be held “accountable” for it.

“This order will put people throughout the country at risk by allowing developers to ignore potential hazards while muzzling the public’s ability to weigh in on potentially harmful projects near their homes,” Alex Taurel, deputy legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement.

...

Now that the feds have abandoned reality, enter this competition to keep the SF Bay Area from flooding

2017-01-26T15:13:00-05:00

Prompted by the success of a similar competition it ran in New York several years ago, The Rockefeller Foundation has launched a completely Ben-Carson-HUD-free contest that challenges architects and urban planners to "imagine climate change solutions" for the San Francisco Bay Area. Opening for submissions in April, "The Bay Area: Resilient by Design Challenge" will have two phases. According to NextCity:

In the first, teams will participate in a three-month “exploratory research and community engagement period to develop initial design concepts for specific sites,” according to the release. The second will be a “collaborative five-month intensive design phase” in which teams will work with residents, businesses, community-based organizations and local politicians. Because three Bay Area cities (Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley) are already part of another climate change adaptation effort, Rockefeller's 100 Resilient Cities, the two projects will collaborate.

...

MVVA-designed Dallas Trinity River Park to become America's largest urban nature park

2016-11-29T15:16:00-05:00

The Trinity River Park, which will be 10 times the size of Central Park in New York, will be made up of 7,000 acres of the Great Trinity Forest, 2,000 acres of space between the Trinity River levees and 1,000 acres of already developed space. MVVA’s design will build on municipal efforts to connect the river with the city. It envisions the space as a “beautiful and naturalistic network of trails, meadows and lakes living in harmony with the river”.

The absorbing design of China's anti-flood "sponge cities"

2016-10-11T13:08:00-04:00

Is flood mitigation the new frontier in urban planning? China, whose urban centers have regularly been experiencing infrastructure-shuttering floods, is actively encouraging its metropolises to start reshaping themselves to handle the new reality via the so-called "sponge city" program. As an article in The Guardian notes:

The sponge city programme takes inspiration from low impact development in the US, water sensitive urban design in Australia and sustainable drainage systems in the UK.

But nothing at this scale has ever been attempted before. “The sponge city programme is more comprehensive and ambitious,” says WenMei Ha, head of the China water management team at Arcadis, an international urban consultancy which was appointed to this plan by the government.

For more on flood mitigation and the entities trying to rise above it:

This greenhouse can grow legs to escape flooding

2016-01-28T18:47:00-05:00

Constructed in an area which experiences frequent flooding, the Greenhouse That Grows Legs incorporates a novel approach to flood protection. The building is fabricated on a bespoke steel frame with four hydraulic legs, capable of lifting the building 800mm from the ground on command.

According to the designer, Bat Studio, the greenhouse stands on hydraulic legs that can lift it up in case of flooding – a common occurrence in the area.

Built in glue-laminated timber sections, the greenhouse is meant to be both visually-pleasing and functional. The most prominent façade includes externally-expressed "glulam" columns with mirrors bonded to their sides.

"As the building becomes established and filled with plants we hope this effect will become better and better," state the architects.

"The aim was to construct an experimental building exploring a novel approach to flood defence whilst not compromising the quality of the buildings design."

View from the Farnsworth House may soon be a lot drier

2015-06-19T20:13:00-04:00

"The river was part of its immediate environment. To move it to higher ground where it never floods would be ridiculous. You would ask: 'Why is it on stilts?' It makes no sense to me."

All along, Mies van der Rohe's iconic design for the retreat of Dr. Edith Farnsworth was intended to withstand floodwaters, but in the past 19 years, the house has flooded three times, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. These incidents were partially blamed on rapid suburban development nearby, for bringing more water into the Fox River.

So as a protective measure, the house's owner, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is considering a few drastic alternatives for how to proceed – most notably moving the house entirely to another, higher spot on Farnsworth's 62-acre property. The other options include lifting the house on hydraulic stilts, or reorienting it on top of a "9-foot mound at its original site". An advisory committee, including Chicago architect and grandson of Mies, Dirk Lohan (quoted above), is discussing the options with the Trust today.

The Trust alone can't make the final call – Landmarks Illinois, a group of historic preservation advocates, ...

The sudden rise & fall of Oregon's second largest city

2015-02-24T14:14:00-05:00

The mere utterance of Vanport was known to send shivers down the spines of "well-bred" Portlanders. Not because of any ghost story, or any calamitous disaster—that would come later—but because of raw, unabashed racism. Built in 110 days in 1942, Vanport was always meant to be a temporary housing project, a superficial solution to Portland’s wartime housing shortage. [...] In a few short years, Vanport went from being thought of as a wartime example of American innovation to a crime-laden slum.

h/t CityLab

Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away

2014-07-11T13:11:00-04:00

Low-lying south Florida, at the front line of climate change in the US, will be swallowed as sea levels rise. Astonishingly, the population is growing, house prices are rising and building goes on. The problem is the city is run by climate change deniers.

Should it stay or should it go? Preservationists weigh options to protect Farnsworth house from flooding damage

2014-04-30T13:50:00-04:00

The Fox River has shown little respect for Mies' brilliant juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made. In the past 18 years, the river has inundated the [Farnsworth] house three times. [...] Confronted with the prospect of more flooding, the house's owner is carefully weighing how to preserve and protect the house, two goals that potentially conflict... Such are the choices in an era when disastrous "100-year floods" seem to occur every few years.

How Holland can help fight floods around the world

2014-04-28T13:32:00-04:00

It’s initiatives such as this that have, in recent years, given the water engineers of Holland their almost mythical status amongst flood defenders the world over. After Hurricane Sandy hit New York, in 2012, the $20 billion protection plan that was subsequently instituted built upon principles that were pioneered by the Dutch. Officials from as far away as China, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh are currently consulting Dutch experts.

Too Big to Flood?

2013-04-15T12:10:00-04:00

over the next half-century these coastal megacities may grow “too big to flood.” But flood they will unless they dramatically revise their growth strategies and undertake major infrastructure projects

Bruce Stutz explores how as economic activity and populations continue to expand in coastal urban areas, particularly in Asia, hundreds of trillions of dollars of infrastructure, industrial and office buildings, and homes are increasingly at risk from intensifying storms and rising sea levels.

h/t Bruce Sterling

Mississippi River flooding: Residents build homemade dams to saves houses

2011-05-31T12:14:48-04:00

These homes in Vicksburg are all situated along the Yazoo River, a tributary of the overflowing Mississippi River, and their owners have surrounded themselves with tons of earth and sand. With questions over whether the main levees that protect the area from floods would hold, these farmers took no chances and have so far saved their homes and crops from destruction.