The challenge: design for resiliency, in phases, for the next 50 to 100 years. Miami will be one of the first cities severely affected by sea level rise and it’s time to take action.
The overall master plan for 100 years into the future includes regenerative gathering places such as solar parks and greenhouse parks. The wetland park will be home to educational centers, sky bridges, water recreation, and lots of biodiversity. Communities will reuse waste products like compost and biogas to feed their gardens and power their homes. Miami Beach as we know it will be under water, so life will be lived both on rooftops and in adaptation with the water. Rooftops will house gardens, displaced sport fields, solar energy production, and more.
To our surprise, this became a group project. We did not have the luxury of choosing our groups, nor the site for that matter.
We already had our thesis topics planned out, thoroughly researched the semester prior. My thesis would revolve around regenerative agriculture, except it had to apply to the urban landscape. So my research went into regenerative cities, whatever this means. I would make it mean something and apply it to my site, because there’s opportunity everywhere.
The assigned site was on Miami Beach, beween 72nd and 73rd avenues, stretching from the ocean to the waterway and including the surrounding blocks on the north and south end.
The way things played out: I had a vision and the other two did not. The assigned site was going to incorporate permaculture principles and a transition to regenerative living. We had only a few weeks to pull this thing together. I did the delegating and created the diagrams to demonstrate my 50- to 100-year vision for a regenerative Miami Beach. Francesca did most of the renderings and Tim did the socio-economic research.
We analyzed the land uses on site, which were mostly public parks surrounded by residential zones.
Further analysis revealed that our site was topographically one of the lowest on the already-low barrier island. Only a couple feet of porous limestone sits between the urban fabric and the water table beneath.
We brainstorm the meanings of resiliency (the ability to bounce back once disaster strikes) and the path to get there. There are many. And fighting the weather or attempting to keep the water out are not realistic solutions.
Our project focuses on decentralization and self sufficiency as key in our path to resiliency. Currently water and power to the island come from plants far off on the other side of the city. When disaster strikes it will not be wise to rely on these faraway yet essential resources. Additionally, waste is shipped to an island a few miles away. Resiliency will mean reusing and regenerating our resources locally.
Big changes are happening in the next 50 to 100 years and the project happens in phases. The roadways will eventually become waterways. The buildings and city blocks will become self sufficient, catching their own water, generating their own energy, and sharing the abundance from their own urban farming initiatives. Residents must gradually become accustomed to the lifestyle shift required to keep Miami Beach alive. Perceptions of what’s “normal” must be altered and those who are on board will have a productive role to play in a regenerative future.
Phase one starts immediately, and it’s about creating awareness. People will be hesitant to change if they don’t understand the why.
This is where the artists come in. Existing parking lots and underutilized spaces will become “farm parks” and “solar parks” and artists will come up with creative and aesthetically interesting ways to grow food, catch water, and generate energy.
They will also serve as recreational and gathering spaces, as vehicular traffic is gradually phased away from the island and parking lots are no longer needed.
Building retrofitting will begin in phase one. Individual building will have the capacity to catch water and sunlight, convert sunlight and biogas to energy, and produce food on rooftops.
Phases two and three will involve a more community-wide network of rainwater catchment and recirculation, energy capture and storage, food production and distribution, and shared gathering spaces. This way if one building’s infrastructure fails, it has a community to rely on. With water rising and roadways becoming canals, city blocks become more like islands. Resilient islands will have a strong sense of community and self-sustaining systems in place.
Phase one is all about adaptation. Roadways will be narrowed to make space for swales, and new modes of transportation will be encouraged.
- Adapt to vehicle restrictions
- Introduce innovative urban farming initiatives
- More mangroves
Phase 2 (somewhere in between)
- Densify. Integrate.
- Add more mangroves
Phase 3 (a regenerative self-sustaining system of interconnected ecological systems)
- Food production & distribution
- Water catchment & reuse independent of municipal sources
- Waste as opportunity
- Flourishing mangrove forests
With salty waters rising and intruding into the freshwater aquifer, we would have to get creative if we wanted our own supply of fresh water. We would have to catch it from the sky and store it somewhere, so we decide to utilize materials already on the island, and build upward.
And that’s a wrap. Now we celebrate the end of three grueling years.
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