Migrating Shore[Line]s

Fluidity, Land making, Land loss, Sea level rise, Architecture on artificial land

What happens when the shorelines are no longer fixed, what are the urban impacts and opportunities?

Many cities were founded and built along the coastline or near water. The presence of water made these areas suitable for habitation, however, for reasons related to human occupation; urbanisation and growth, these cities have modified their ‘shorelines’, creating new land or inviting water inland. These human interventions together with natural variability and effects of climate change are responsible for migration of shorelines. The term aqueous urbanism was coined in reference to a form of urbanism in which the city extends into the water and water enters the city. Similarly, other scholars have questioned the notion of reading and mapping the shorelines as a fixed lines.

Aim

The study will aim to answer but not limited to the following questions.

  • How has the fluidity of shorelines shaped cities: as a historical development, as a contemporary development and future developments?
  • What specific design tactics can we learn from the influence of migrating shorelines on the architecture and infrastructure on modified foreshores?

Approach

The semester will entail research conducted through close and territorial scale reading of selected cities, mapping and forensic reconstruction. Archival studies, reading historical imagery, review of projects - historical and contemporary and comparative analysis of coastal cities. Students will be encouraged to incorporate materials out of conventional architectural resources and methods. The research will be undertaken by investigating in a broad sense, how the phenomenon of migrating shorelines has shaped the form, the morphology and the future of selected cities across the globe. Particular attention will be paid to re(reading) and extracting learnings in the form of design strategies and tactics applied both intentionally and non-intentionally on these terrains. These tactics will be critically analysed and clearly communicated inform of maps, sectional diagrams etc.

Where?

The investigation will be carried out from a city scale to site to architectural scale. Selected cities will include:

  • Perth, Sydney and Auckland.
  • Boston, New Orleans and New York, Seattle and Vancouver.
  • Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
  • Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Venice.
  • Island cities/countries – Maldives.

With hindsight and a foresight, the students will be required to take a critical position and support it. The final outcome of the study will be a detailed analysis culminating into a series of tactics compiled in the wwform of individual booklets which will be combined to form a single book for the whole class.