“The simple truth is, human beings have become a geological force on the planet, with the power to reshape the boundaries of the world in ways we didn’t intend and don’t entirely understand. Every day, little by little, the water is rising, washing away beaches, eroding coastlines, pushing into homes and shops and places of worship. As our world floods, it is likely to cause immense suffering and devastation. It is also likely to bring people together and inspire creativity and camaraderie in ways that no one can foresee. Either way, the water is coming.”
The Entropic City’s urban strategy uses sand as a ground building exercise to respond to Miami’s rising sea levels, the Traverse Dunes elaboration reconsiders how we think about coastal erosion as a way to choreograph the movement of both ground and buildings over time.
Current beach nourishment programs use sand to fill land that has eroded, and intended to protect shoreline structures. Could we consider our built environment as the “issue”, rather than eroding beaches, which is (mostly) a naturally occurring process?
A sand dune formation is used to allow erosion on one side, and replenishment on the other. The landscape would be managed by sensors within the gantry to survey the erosion, and then able to make decisions for it’s replenishment. A process which moves closer towards a choreography of ground that works with nature. Buildings follow the movement of the ground, a sort of retreat from the eroding shoreline, with an amphibian-like mechanism. These units aggregate and reconfigure in ways that produces unique circulation and relationships, on and between its layers with each rearrangement. Traverse Dunes, speculates on a possible future that questions the static nature of our current built environment as the sea level rises.
UCLA RESEARCH STUDIO | SPRING 2019
INSTRUCTOR: HEATHER ROBERGE