Resilience - University of Miami School of Architecture

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virginia key ecosystem
urban
• How can beer physical connecons be made to adjacent instu-
ons?
• How can the RSMAS campus be opened up and integrated into the
system of public waterfront trails which runs from Brickell, out the
Rickenbacker Causeway, and onto Crandon Park?
• How could campus edges be redeveloped to funcon as es, rather
than barriers to adjacent uses?
ecological
• What funcons of the system have been most compromised by
coastal development?
• What off-site impacts does the campus have?
• What adverse impacts could be migated through architectural or
site improvements?
• What campus improvements could contribute to increased funcon
or resilience of the ecosystem?
building resilience
sea-level Rise
The concept of resilience has several implicaons in terms of evaluang the
architecture itself. Most obvious is physical resilience to climate events including
hurricanes and sea-level rise. Examples from other low-lying geographies
are informave, but South Florida presents an unusual set of condions.
Dutch architecture represents a cultural bias toward long planning horizons
and durable, well detailed architecture. These qualies are appropriate to
planning for university structures which are expected to accommodate sophiscated
program requirements and endure over me. However, hurricane
winds, intense sun, and humidity add addional stresses not considered in
Dutch architecture. Coastal developments in Southeast Asia do face similar
climate condions, yet few examples are expected to meet the high performance
standards of University-level research facilies.
thermal comfort
Ability to provide climate comfort through passive or renewable means is another
aspect of resilience. Again, Southeast Asia provides some precedents.
Integrang tradional strategies into a high-performance building will be part
of the challenge. Ideally, a combinaon of passive thermal comfort strategies,
efficient building envelope, minimizing arficial lighng demand, and
thoughul design of specialized laboratory equipment could result in a high
performance research building which could operate with less dependence on
outside power. While this seems unusual for a university building, there are
many examples of field research facilies which allow for high quality scien-
fic invesgaon in a much less resource dependent manner. Field staons
should also provide good precedent for the integraon of housing into scien-
fic research facilies. While the actual number of units may be small in terms
of the overall university populaon, I would hope to determine how many residents
would be required to support the culture of integrated life and learning
which is evident at facilies such as Duke Marine labs which incorporate some
housing.
program adaptability
Another aspect of resilience, is the ability of a system to adjust to change while
sll maintaining its overall form. For architecture this implies a building which
meets its current program, but is designed in such a manner as to accommodate
future needs which may be quite different. Generally, this implies a
modular system where structure and internal parons are separate, as well
as design of mechanical systems which can be easily accessed and adapted.
The thesis will have to explore what this means in response to the parcular
program.
habitat
In responding to the third client, the Virginia Key ecosystem, another set of
metrics apply. From an ecosystem standpoint, resilience is oen a result of
diversity of species and habitat structure. A building will impact these in two
ways. First, off-site impacts need to be considered in terms of drainage, air
polluon, shadow casng, light polluon etc. This kind of impact is fairly well
described by the USGBC LEED rang system. In a coastal marine locaon
adjacent to fragile habitat, a range of impacts must be considered including
site disturbance during construcon, release of pollutants during maturing of
building structure, and impact of maintenance pracces such as painng or
window cleaning.
Second, and less explored is how the building can in fact replace or augment
physical habitat structure which has been lost. One area I am curious about is
the potenal for vegetated roofs to be designed to meet the habitat needs of
specific species. An unintended but well documented example is the coloniza-
on of parapets and cornice structures by Peregrine Falcons in New York City.
In the context of sea-level rise and climate change, roofscapes may be able to
provide refuge for species such as shorebirds who may lose their natural habitat
due to flooding, even if only during temporary storm events.
cultural context
Finally, architecture is a cultural product. A building is an expensive and impacul
statement about the aesthecs and cultural values of its architects and
client. While it will inevitably express the dominant values and aesthecs of
its moment of incepon, a resilient building will have aesthec and cultural
meaning whose value and legibility endure over me. Despite the newness of
Miami as an urban center, there is a rich architectural vocabulary to draw from.
While there is no history of selement in Virginia Key prior to the 1940’s, the
early selers of the region followed the light wooden vernacular common to
the American South.