Archinect - News

New scientific study provides vital data on sinking Chinese cities

2024-04-23T15:08:00-04:00

The toll of urbanization in China has been documented in a new paper published in the journal Science by a team of researchers from different institutions around the country. Using a method called spaceborne synthetic aperture radar interferometry (or InSAR), they were able to establish the rate at which land is subsiding in major cities, affecting over a third (36%) of the country's urban population.

The paper's abstract states that 45% of metro areas surveyed are now subsiding faster than 3 millimeters per year, with another 16% subsiding faster than 10 millimeters per year. By 2120, upwards of 26% of all coastal lands will have elevations below sea level. The source of the sinking is the combined weight of buildings and the depletion of groundwater around urban areas. "Our results underscore the necessity of enhancing protective measures to mitigate potential damages from subsidence," the authors stated.

These latest findings could potentially have bearings on the work of Turensc...

Miami Beach preservationists sound the alarm over concerning new building safety law

2024-03-26T15:04:00-04:00

The New York Times has picked a side in the fight between Miami Beach historic preservation advocates and developers supporting the recently signed Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, a law those in the former category claim will augment a devastating erasure of the local architecture character over time.

The rift that has for years played out amidst a backdrop that includes the tragedy at Surfside and a spate of new starchitect-designed developments on the nine-mile island has recent salients in the demolished Deauville Beach Hotel and the yet-decided fate of Miami Marine Stadium.

Advocates say the new law is a guise that uses climate change and building safety as its premise to usher in what is, in reality, a slate of insidious and destructive requirements. The Commercial Observer said they also work to "hamstring the powers of municipalities to dictate what can replace demolished structures."

Miami’s $4 billion plan to combat sea level rise has radical urban ideas

2021-06-01T11:43:00-04:00

The City of Miami has published a draft of its Stormwater Master Plan; a $3.8 billion plan to be enacted over the next 40 years, seeking to mitigate the impact of rising sea levels on the city. The plan sets out a wide portfolio of measures, from stormwater pumps and sea walls to more novel approaches such as floating neighborhoods and streets converted into canals.

The report sets out both short and long-term strategies for the city’s defense from rising sea levels. Near-term resiliency measures, with a 20-to-50-year planning horizon, include both structural and non-structural actions, encompassing everything from infrastructure construction to reformed insurance models. The plan proposes an upgrade to building code strategies, including minimum structure finish-floor levels informed by predicted water surface levels, and a requirement for piled or stilted structures, both buildings and roadways, to consider future sea level rise.

Previously on Archinect: Rising sea levels threa...

Pier 40 concept envisions an offshore apartment complex in Chelsea that allows for sea-level rise

2018-02-12T20:21:00-05:00

Local multidisciplinary creative firm DFA has come up with a concept for the rehabilitation of Chelsea's rapidly disintegrating Pier 40 that would provide housing and other services but would also adapt to the predicted rising sea levels of future NYC. The future-proof housing, commercial, and recreation complex would rise from the Hudson River and be able to remain above water in the event of rising sea levels while addressing the city’s dire need for affordable housing.

Renderings courtesy of DFA

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."

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...