Archinect - News

Greenland is melting

2019-08-02T14:52:00-04:00

More than 11 billion tons of ice was lost to the oceans by surface melt on Wednesday alone, creating a net mass ice loss of some 217 billion tons from Greenland in July. The scope of Wednesday’s ice melt is a number difficult to grasp. To understand just how much ice is being lost, a mere 1 billion tons—or 1 gigaton—of ice loss is equivalent to about 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the Danish Meteorological Institute said.

The Associated Press reports that a summer heatwave that recently scorched Europe has moved north to Greenland, where the elevated temperatures have produced record glacial melt.

While 82-percent of Greenland is covered in ice, nearly 60-percent of the island's total ice sheet is showing signs of melting, a record high, the Danish Meteorological Institute tells The Associated Press.

According to the institute's Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist, global sea levels are due to rise .01-inch for every 110 billion tons of ice melt that occurs on the continent.

Is Greenland melting before our eyes? It looks like yes.

Introducing Bjarke Ingels' floating student housing, "Urban Rigger"

2016-09-22T12:48:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels has found the elusive silver lining in global sea level rise and the European affordable housing crisis in the form of "Urban Rigger," a series of inexpensive student housing complexes that are designed to float in the sea, especially in those cities which have dense urban cores next to the waterfront. The idea here is to provide students with affordable digs that are close to class while simultaneously making the most out of changing climate conditions and post-industrial port repurposing. The first complete Urban Rigger has already been assembled in Copenhagen.

According to an article in FastCompany, "Each unit, which can house 12 students at once, is composed of modular shipping containers. These modules are powered by a photovoltaic array and use a heat-exchange system that draws upon the thermal mass of water to warm and cool the interiors. Meanwhile, an aerogel developed by NASA insulates the interiors."

For the latest on Bjarke Ingels:

Play "Arkinoid" arcade o...

Designing around sea-level rise in New York

2016-07-05T17:56:00-04:00

Building walls around a city is an idea that is as old as cities themselves. In the Middle Ages, walls were built to keep out invading armies. Now they are built to keep out Mother Nature. [...] As far as walls go, the Big U is designed to be a nice one ("a wall with benefits," as one urban designer puts it). It was one of the winning proposals in Rebuild by Design, a $930 million competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development...

The article describes New York as having more at stake when it comes to sea-level rise than any other city in the world. A bunch of islands in a coastal estuary, New York is uniquely at risk. And, as the largest financial hub in the world with some of the most expensive real estate in the country, the costs of losing entire neighborhoods, such as that around Wall St., are unfathomable.

For more responses to the risks posed by sea-level rise to New York, check out these links:

Architect turned sea-flooding specialist keeps Panama City afloat

2016-04-21T18:33:00-04:00

Banfield’s dedication to environmental issues was born by chance in 2000, when she moved with her husband and three children to Clayton...Together with Carlos Varela, her legal-minded neighbor, Banfield created a community association to defend the rainforest. She remained on the front lines for years, sacrificed her architectural career and eventually began public campaigns for a variety of environmental causes.

Although the Harvard GSD formed the Office for Urbanization recently to study the effects of sea rise and climate change, Vice Mayor of Panama City Raisa Banfield has taken a more direct approach, physically halting flood-prone projects during construction and connecting with like-minded colleagues around the globe to find solutions.

As the article notes, "As glaciers melt and oceans flow higher, 'sea-level rise is an issue on almost every coast,' says Rosetta Elkin, landscape architect and professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. It’s particularly tough in Panama City, because the entire town was built too far to the east, 'where sea levels are precipitously low' — thanks in part to American bases — says Arosemena. As Banfield goes through the rigmarole of finding a solution and calling together a global group of problem-solvers like the Dutch, she may stand a chance at creating some scaffolding for the many other cities that will have to look this same issue in th...

"King tides" give a glimpse of what the (near) future's rising seas will look like

2016-01-21T12:29:00-05:00

King tides—a type of perigean spring tide (there’s your science jargon)—occur when extra-high tides line up with some other meteorological anomalies. They’re not a huge deal: The water flowing over the seawall is part novelty, part nuisance. But these rare days hint at a new normal, when sea level rise will render current coastlines obsolete [...] On January 21 and 22, the king tide will bring San Francisco’s shoreline about a foot higher than average high tide.

Related:

Climate change is increasing the risk of severe flooding in New York

2015-09-28T17:49:00-04:00

Flood risk in New York City has increased in recent decades due to human-caused sea level rise and the related storm surge that occurs during cyclones, according to a new study. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the risk storms pose to the largest city in the United States. [...] “This is going from something you probably won’t see in your lifetime to something you may see several times in your lifetime,” said Andra Reed, a researcher at Penn State University.

According to a report published in the journal PNAS that looked at sediment at different point of the New Jersey shore, before 1800, a flood that rose 7.4 ft above sea level would occur about once every 500 years.

Now – or, more precisely, since 1970 – we can expect a storm like that to hit the Big Apple every 24 years.

Between 850 CE and 1800, there was a slight, natural, and gradual rise in sea levels. But in the last few decades, sea level has risen an average of 2 millimeters per year.

According to Time, "Nearly 90% of that rise has been the result of human activity."

The Pragmatics of Adaptating to Sea Level Rise: The Next Wave @ UCLA

2015-03-09T15:49:00-04:00

Beneath the vertiginous LED-strip lighting of Michael Maltzan's Billy Wilder Theater, a diverse audience gathered last Tuesday for a talk entitled "The Next Wave: Urban Adaptations for Rising Sea Levels." Co-presented by the Hammer Museum and UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the event brought together coastal geomorphologist Jeremy Lowe and civil engineer Peter Wijsman in a conversation moderated by Kristina Hill, a UC Berkeley Professor of Landscape Architecture. The talk was part of an on-going lecture series on "the most pressing issues surrounding the current and future state of water."

Hill began the evening's panel with a brief introduction to the unfolding realities of sea level rise, as well as some of the efforts underway to mitigate its impact. Pointing to an image of the San Francisco's Embarcadero embattled by high tides, Hill discussed the urgency of our particular temporal moment: we are in the last slow period of sea level rise that the Earth wil...

"Miami 2100" exhibition reinforces the urgent need for designing resilient cities

2015-01-19T22:59:00-05:00

Miami, Florida is one of those cities that is projected to be underwater over the next 100 years. And with climate change and rising sea levels continuing to occur worldwide, it's never too early to start preparing for what natural disasters may lie ahead. Students at the Florida International University School of Architecture took a proactive approach to this grim outlook with the exhibition, Miami 2100: Envisioning a Resilient Second Century, currently at the Coral Gables Museum until March 1.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the exhibition showcases the projects conducted by graduate research studios and seminars in the school's Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture over the course of three years. With a solution-driven focus in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design, Miami 2100 includes models, drawings, video interviews, and various digital materials and projections.

Find more exhibition photos here.

Relocation or Adaptation: From Sprawl to Archipelago

2014-12-08T16:05:00-05:00

1. By current estimates, if the polar ice caps melt, sea levels around the world will rise by between 80 and 100m. 2. Many cities (and, by default, around 70 per cent of the world's population) border on a body of water of some kind. According to 2010 government figures, 39 per cent of US population live on a coast. Half live within 50 miles of the ocean.

Based on worst-case scenarios for sea-level rise, cartographer Jeremy Linn imagined the future of three of America's major Western cities. He used topographic information to speculate on what an 80m – ≈262 ft – rise would look like as well as coming up with new names for this new geography. While such an increase in sea levels won't occur in our lifetime, our grandchildren could one day live in cities like this (if drastic food shortages, violent conflict, drug-adapted 'superbugs,' drought, and extreme weather don't get them first...). Such a rise in sea level would require every ice sheet on the planet to melt.

In Linn's imaginings, Portland (pictured above) has become a veritable archipelago of islands dominated by the spine of what-is-now Northwest Portland.

Likewise, much of contemporary Seattle will be replaced by a network of waterways. Only the city's hills would remains as isolated islands.

Los Angeles-of-the-future is almost entirely inundated. To get from Baldwin Island (Hil...

Louisiana is Disappearing into the Sea

2014-10-29T13:23:00-04:00

The US state of Louisiana is slowly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico as its fragile wetlands are eroded by rising sea levels. Approximately 75 square kilometres are lost each year and the US Geological Survey has warned that the entire habitat - which represents 40% of all wetlands in the US - could be destroyed within 200 years. The loss is partly down to natural evolutionary processes, but experts say human behaviour... has made the region more vulnerable to storm surges.

Twitterbot can now warn UK residents when river-levels are rising

2014-07-23T13:53:00-04:00

A unique collaborative project has been launched, bringing a constant stream of live river level data to anyone who needs to stay up-to-date with environmental conditions. Shoothill GaugeMap brings the real-time status of England and Wales’ rivers and tides from Environment Agency monitoring stations, to people in an accessible and user-friendly manner. It works via the web and Twitter, and is available on all major desktop browsers, tablets and smartphones.

Relocation or Adaptation: Construction on Steel Wall Along Jersey Shore Set to Begin

2014-07-21T18:10:00-04:00

Construction of a four-mile long steel wall going up along a stretch of the Jersey Shore ripped apart during Hurricane Sandy is expected to begin next month [...] The state Department of Environmental Protection awarded a $23.8 million contract to Springfield-based EIC Associates in May to build the steel wall that will stretch from Lyman Street in Mantoloking through Brick.

Relocation or Adaptation: Map Shows Potential Impact of Flooding on Metro Boston

2014-07-21T15:29:00-04:00

The map [...] based on a report by the Boston Harbor Association, shows the impact of 5-foot and 7.5-foot coastal floods in Metro Boston that could be caused by a number of things — a rising sea level, storm surges, astronomical high tides or other causes.

Relocation or Adaptation: Kiribati buys land in Fiji

2014-07-02T13:23:00-04:00

Aiming to avoid a humanitarian crisis, Kiribati recently purchased land in Fiji — about 1,200 miles away — where its residents would be relocated in the event that sea-level rise drowns the Pacific island nation and displaces its population of just over 100,000 people [...] Contributing very little to the greenhouse gases that most scientists agree fuel climate change, Kiribati is among the least responsible for the present climate crisis.

As atmospheric CO2 levels near 402 ppm without any significant curtailing of industrial production by the major nations of the global economy, time is running out for many of the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The UN and other transnational bodies are beginning to seem like echo chambers for the leaders of island nations like Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. The sad irony of global warming is that it is countries least responsible for it that will bear the most burden.

Some architects are producing imaginative designs for adaptive structures. For example, LILYPAD is a project by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. Described as a "prototypical auto-sufficient amphibious city," the project would adapt to rising sea levels while serving as a shelter for climate refugees.

But let's be real: adaptive strategies are fundamentally out of the question for countries without the resources for expensive architectural projects – ie. the countries that need them the most. Efforts by n...

Waterworld: Koen Olthuis' floating structures, from slums to stadiums

2013-08-29T14:17:00-04:00

[It] is the same technology as we use in Holland. It’s made up of concrete caisson, boxes, a shoebox of concrete. We fill them with styrofoam. So with [these] you get unthinkable floating foundations [...] The house itself is the same as a normal house, the same material. Then you want to figure out how to get water and electricity and remove sewage and use the same technology as cruise ships." - Koen Olthuis

Dutch architect Koen Olthuis sees the future of architecture floating out to sea -- quite literally. Responding to undeniable ecological shifts of rising sea levels and seasonal flooding, Olthuis has proposed floatable-projects all along the social spectrum, designing prefabricated multi-use units for waterfront slums in Dhaka, "amphibious" housing in Holland and Columbia, private island-villas for the "stupidly rich", and foldable Olympic stadiums.

See projects from Olthius' Waterstudio.NL, in the tradition of floating architecture inspired by Dutch history and worldwide realities.