Miami faces a great challenge: sea level rise. Not only Miami, but in time the whole coast of Florida will be subject to intensive floods, salt water intrusion and a complete shift from land to sea based lifestyle. It is important, in this sense, that the people living in these areas take action, and materialize a change in the way their architecture can respond to such effects and also how resources and energy are consumed and produced. As a pilot project, Surging Atoll 2100 is both a research center on climate change and a cultural center for the city and the people of Miami, destined to mitigate sea level rise. In the presence of hurricanes – single events, whose sometimes catastrophic impact can suddenly change the looks of a whole territory – the project proposes a variety of strategies designed to maintain and protect the state of balance – social, economic, political and cultural – as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, to address the slow and gradual phenomenon of sea level rise, the project aims to prefigure the evolution of the context, proposing adaptive methods and replicable architectural-landscape strategies along the Florida coast: a systemic model able to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels and offer energy solutions compatible with the new context that will be emerging.
The Board:
