Floating Sustainability

Floating Sustainability

Graduate Thesis 2022

Jiaxin Li

FLOODING. Poster for Paris Agreement

Graduate Thesis 2022 Provocations Positions Project

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Thesis Statement Sea level rise has already begun to redraw coastlines around the world and coastal cities are the first to feel the impacts. According to the U.N., more than 600 million people live in coastal areas that are less than 30ft above sea level. Those people will have to relocate as more of those shorelines retreat and floods become more consistent and severe.

As the rising oceans will reshape our land geography, architecture must also reshape itself in order to have answers for the changing world. With the threat of coastal buildings being submerged, we’ll need to confront what an architecture that is designed to adapt to water look like.

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This thesis will explore different available technologies and techniques for adapting to the presence of water in an urban context such as sea walls, stacked massing, elevated structure, and porous building envelopes.

This thesis aims to understand how people can remain on the coast and live with the water. My goal is to present a “water friendly” typology that remains connected to the original urban landscape. This project hopes to offer people who live in coastal communities a way to keep their histories and their place in the world intact.

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Provocations

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Provocation Coastal cities will be transformed by rising sea levels in the coming years. With a large portion of the world’s population living within 100km from the coast, life will be drastically changed. Will we turn inwards and run from the water, or will there be a new generation of explorers to push forward the boundaries of where humans can live? Is living on the ocean humanity’s next frontier?

Submerged urban areas, flooded landscapes, and drowned neighborhoods is a terrifying future. But it can prompt us to reexamine what life on the water would look like. Floating buildings, repurposing impacted infrastructure, subaqueous residencies, etc. What does a new built environment on water look like?

Ancient Greek philosophers thought of water as the arche: the element and the first principle of existing things. The ocean has always been a boundary for humans and civilizations.

The ocean and coastal cities are under threats of the anthropogenic pressures of climate change. If living in the ocean is humanity’s next frontier, there must be a resolution to people’s relationship with the ocean. What are the consequences of endeavoring in the frontier of the ocean?

Graduate Thesis 2022

Sea Level Rise Happening Faster Along U.S. Coastlines

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Global warming is causing global mean sea level to rise in two ways. First, glaciers and ice sheets worldwide are melting and adding water to the ocean. Second, the volume of the ocean is expanding as the water warms. A third, much smaller contributor to sea level rise is a decline in the

amount of liquid water on land—aquifers, lakes and reservoirs, rivers, soil moisture. This shift of liquid water from land to ocean is largely due to groundwater pumping.

1. Diagram showing causes of sean level rise 2. Lorem Ipsum Dolor — Eicidentist 3. River erosion in Bangladesh. Photograph: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/Barcroft Media

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12 1. Diagram of Urban Populations at Risk 2050s 2. Photos of Hong Kong Taken by a Drone 3. World Map

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R&Sie(n) “Aqua Alta” Project

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Analysis Diagram Physical Model Exterior Perspective View Interior Perspective View Transformation

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What the kind of structure is ‘water friendly’ typologies?

Stacked massing, Elevated structure

Graduate Thesis 2022

Sculpture, Wim Jonker

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1. Urban Tetris by Mariyan Atanasov transforms high-rise blocks 2. Animation: The House of Small Cubes,Kunio Kato,2008

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1. Little Island Park by Heatherwick Studio

How can submerged space be used?

Graduate Thesis 2022

Pier Structure

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1. “Under” – Europe’s First Underwater Restaurant, Snøhetta

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Self-sustaining Building Presented at the 2016 Venice Architecture Bienalle, these new communities are designed to be entirely self-reliant, recycling their own waste, generating their own energy and producing their own food.

Integrated solar power systems provide energy for heating, cooling and electric cars.

Community participants share responsibility for water and waste management systems.

Fruits and vegetable are grown individually as well as communally. Various housing types are offered, each with adaptable modularity designed around seasonal energy savings and human comfort factors.

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1. Analysis Diagram 2. Physical Model 3. Physical Model

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Sea Change: Boston Sea Change: Boston is a Sasaki research initiative on sea level rise advocating for long-term coastal resiliency in the Greater Boston area.

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1. Interview People who live in Boston 2. Analysis Diagram 3. Analysis Diagram

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Response to Sea Level Rise

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Design Strategies

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1. Analysis Diagram 2. Analysis Diagram

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Scales of Design

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1. Analysis Diagram

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In order to avoid mass relocation of millions of people from coastal cities, this thesis will propose an architecture that lives with the water as a constant presence. It aims to visualize how physical structures can interact with the water and not be overrun or swept away by the coming sea level rise. The proposed project will be a building scale intervention as opposed to a portion of a city. This thesis will present alternatives to existing types and forms in order to best serve the purpose of having people safely remain in their coastal community and carry on their lives and stories. This thesis will finally reimagine the spaces and new aesthetic qualities that emerge from an engagement with water.

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Positions

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Project

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1. Google Map of Site 2. Diagram- Jobs and Housing Density 3. Diagram- 2050 Year Sea Level Rise

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VOLUME&ACCUMULATION

ELEVATED STRUCTURE

SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

SOLAR POWER

STACKED MASSING SOLAR POWER SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

PIER STRUCTURE

SELF-SUSTAINABILITY ENERGY SAXINGS WIND POWER

ELEVATED STRUCTURE

STACKED MASSING

FLOATING ARCHITECTURE LIVE WITH WATER ARCHITECTURE ON WATER

PIER STRUCTURE

WATER FRIENDLY

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I have my 3 strategies of having floating architecture, stacked massing, and self-sustainability to give better options for adaptation.