The Climate Core is a proposal that seeks to bolster the traditional building core amplifying a building’s individual resource capacity. Ranging from water collection, to methane gas, from electrification to rewilding, the buildings are renovated from the inside out, replacing the original core with a Climate Core that is part on-site robotic fabrication and part off the shelf plug and play components. This project is an ongoing collaboration with the Trust for Governors Island, and has been studied using buildings in the Nolan Park area of Governors Island and Far Rockaway NYC.
David Erdman (Co-Principal Investigator), Jing Liu (Co-Principal Investigator)
Coastal densification and urbanization are common in urban archipelagos. Because they are land scarce and because of the economics of waterfront property, we often see rapid development in areas that are vulnerable to rising tides, storm surge inundation and depleted coastal habitat. They are often compounded with pluvial (rain) inundation due to the hydrological dynamics of urban island infrastructure worsening the risk to human and non-human residents.
Vertical Retreat considers how to design buildings in flood prone areas which can safely operate during major events and which anticipate greater frequencies and occurrences of multi-directional inundation.
The proposal is a renovation of an existing waterfront park and phased extension of commercial development. The building pulls up critical services and public programs into an elevated public promenade where the lower floors are designed to absorb flooding (freshwater and brackish) and to filter the water through the landscape and mass timber drainage screen.
The study serves as a prototype for future possible development along the over 200km of coastline comprising the 265 island Hong Kong Archipelago. The southern coastline of Hong Kong island is under intensive pressure for urban development. A vast network of hiking trails, recreational parks and natural water features that sustain indigenous urban villages are integrated into and through the proposal to sustain (currently illegal) activities transpiring in (formerly) high risk ares like combined sewer outlets on and along sea walls.
This study was done in collaboration with Cyberport Hong Kong.
Stefan Al (Co-Principal Investigator), Natalia Echeverri (Co-Principal Investigator), David Erdman (Co-Principal Investigator), Ivan Valin (Co-Principal Investigator)