Authors: M.S AAD 2021-2022 Class, Cornell AAP
America’s East Coast is dissolving into the Atlantic due to delayed effects from the last ice age, with being exacerbated by global warming, which makes severe land sinking. As global leaders negotiate a deal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, we as designers must prepare for the drastic change in the built environment. This reimagining of the American city investigates complex infrastructural shifts while also considering the socio-cultural impacts of a changing way of life.
After deeply investigating the histories of eight cities along the eastern coast of the States, we focus on the climate protocols (Macro Scale; Meso Scale; Micro Scale) and the territory of the geology coastal landforms. Additional mapping and drawings illustrate the response and how it transforms the city’s relationship with the sea. Our team does vignettes of possible “future experiments” in investigating one aspect of climate change. The last chapter, Alternative Futures, includes all the potentialities left out of the major chapters that may yet be viable and exciting responses to sea level rise.
