Archinect - News

Historic flooding shuts down Dubai, Oman

2024-04-18T19:20:00-04:00

CNN is reporting on the chaotic situation in Dubai as record rainfalls this week have nearly incapacitated the metro, making for some unreal scenes at both its airport and city streets after about 10 inches fell in under 24 hours. Lightning and high winds have also caused damage to several structures.

Timelapse of massive storm in Dubai that caused a biblical flood.#DubaiFlooding #dubairain pic.twitter.com/31dhquZNjH
— BlueGreen Planet (@BluesWaltair) April 18, 2024

This is the largest amount of rain the region has received in 75 years. A lack of adequate floor prevention infrastructure has caused Copenhagen to adopt so-called "sponge city" concepts after a similarly devastating 2011 cloudburst event, and engineers and planners in the Middle East region may follow suit as such events are increasing due to climate change.

At least 18 people have been reported killed in the flooding thus far.

O2 Arena badly damaged as high winds wreak havoc in London

2022-02-18T12:34:00-05:00

Social media is buzzing about the unreal damage to the O2 Arena's PTFE-coated glass fiber roof, which tore off during a live performance in the early morning hours Friday. A spokesperson for London’s Fire Brigade told the Evening-Standard there is no “actual collapse” of the roof or structural damage to the 22-year-old arena otherwise. More significant buildings across the capital were damaged by the storm’s 70+ mile per hour winds, including Herzog & de Meuron’s Laban Centre, which lost considerable parts of its facade.

More and more of the Dome is being shredded pic.twitter.com/EUgyH2ryvK
— Ben Hubbard (@BJFHubbard) February 18, 2022

The scene is reminiscent of the collapse that happened to Montreal's Olympic Stadium the same winter that the O2 (then called the "Millennium Dome") opened. The Rogers Stirk Harbour-designed arena was originally meant to be a temporary structure before undergoing a conversion into a full-service entertainment venue in 2005. A Fugees reunion concert th...

A historic home in Cape Cod is teetering on the brink after this weekend’s bomb cyclone

2022-02-02T10:39:00-05:00

The blizzard over the weekend dumped more than two feet of snow in many areas, while also inflicting major damage to communities along the Massachusetts coastline. In Truro, a house was left suspended on stilts over a beach after violent waves from the blizzard’s storm surge essentially washed away its remaining foundation.

The home was once owned and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard and was subject to a hastened attempt late last week by the homeowner to stabilize its pilings and prevent a total loss after a January 17th storm eroded nearly 20 feet of beach from the front of the property. A 2016 profile of the beach community published by The Seattle Times revealed a rare “managed retreat” organized amongst the locals. The town said the owners have made plans to move back their property in a press statement released just prior to the storm.

The $1.5 million property was almost entirely fronted by a large dune only only a few short months ago which has now almost completely eroded, leaving a dramatic impression on anyone with an eye on the disappearing backside of the Cape’s 70-mile shoreline. Globally, similar beaches are expected to lose about 22,430 miles of sand to erosion over the next 30 years, a figure that will nearly triple by the end of the century.

Drone footage of house nearly falling int...

UAE is making artificial rainstorms to mitigate intense heat

2021-07-23T17:55:00-04:00

With temperatures in Dubai regularly surpassing 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the government has decided to take control of the scorching weather. Scientists in the United Arab Emirates are making it rain — artificially — using electrical charges from drones to manipulate the weather and force rainfall across the desert nation. Meteorological officials released video footage this week showing a downpour over Ras al Khaimah, as well as several other regions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@officialuaeweather)

Called cloud seeding, this is a weather-modification technique that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds by artificially adding substances, called condensation nuclei, to the atmosphere. Given dwindling water sources, increasing temperatures, and a rising population, the United Arab Emirates hopes to regularly use this method to increase rainfall.

Based on research at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, scientists created the storms using drones, which jolted clouds with electricity, causing droplets in the clouds to clump together. The larger raindrops are then able to fall to the ground, instead of evaporating midair, which is what occurs to smaller droplets in such a hot climate.

In 2017, the researchers at the university received $1.5 million for use over three years from the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Scien...

Preparing New York City for the next storm

2020-06-29T15:41:00-04:00

June marks the start of hurricane season on the Atlantic Ocean. Even amidst the ravages of a novel coronavirus and state violence, the perils posed by a heating planet are not going away. If the city turned out to be woefully underprepared for a pandemic, what about measures to protect against storms and floods?

Amy Howden-Chapman, co-founder of the climate change and arts platform The Distance Plan, takes a closer look at a variety of climate impact interventions at New York City's most endangered stretches of coastline: from Lower Manhattan and the Lower East Side, Red Hook, Rockaway Boardwalk, all the way to Sunset Cove Park at Jamaica Bay.

"[...] new infrastructures of defense — some military in provenance, some providing a softer transition to higher waters — are already transforming daily life," Howden-Chapman writes in her piece for Urban Omnibus.

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.

OCEAN+CITY - ONE Prize 2013 Stormproof competition entry

2013-12-18T13:38:00-05:00

Designed for the Atlantic resort Ocean City on the coast of Maryland, "OCEAN+CITY" by Will Belcher, Joey Hays, Chris Landau, and Henry Moll is an entry the team submitted to this year's ONE Prize: Stormproof competition. Participants in the international competition had to propose smartly designed resilient cities ready to face the challenges of severe climate conditions.

Images courtesy of OCEAN+CITY.