Foster + Partners has unveiled a new resiliency-based master plan for the low-lying Gaafaru Island in the Maldives. The plan addresses the existential crisis posed to the island by climate change, providing "holistic" solutions along multiple fronts where there is a need for a better economic and environmental way forward. 

According to the firm, the six core tenets of the plan are:

1. Adapting to rising sea levels and extreme conditions
2. Minimizing damaging dredging and land reclamation practices
3. Nurturing ecology
4. Enhancing prosperity for all
5. Unifying communities
6. Establishing net zero energy, water and waste

Partner Tony Miki said: "A significant part of this project has been about identifying and understanding the various challenges – and then working out how to tackle them in the most holistic way possible. Our masterplan seeks to embed resilience into the built fabric for the next one-hundred years, providing ecological protection, social equity, and preserving Maldivian cultural heritage."

The firm is also recently behind another master planning effort with Sasaki and the British actor Idris Elba for smart city island development in Sierra Leone.