Projects for Maria

BETWEEN LAND AND WATER

 Masterplan for the Informal Settlement of Buena Vista Santurce in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The goal of this project was to integrate practical needs with a long term plan for a resilient community. The design interweaves land and water, as the site will be flooded with 12 feet of seawater in the next 100 years. To accommodate this rise, the current blocks on the site are raised to 12 feet.

These new islands of earth form various levels of public spaces, agriculture, civic, and housing zones, with an avenue for resources. By weaving raised up islands of land and water—making the two interdependent on one another—the landscape evolves over time, gaining more spaces and potentials as the water level rises.

The built environment is woven between the land and the water, forming a fully integrated site that recognizes and celebrates its natural condition along a body of water, in a mangrove wetland.

This project was part of the exhibit “Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience” in the winter of 2018 at University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History.