Architects create shelter – it is the primary purpose of our profession. The current definition of “shelter” includes high-performance guidelines that produce structures to meet earthquake standards, high winds, flooding, or debris impact. Buildings may be equipped with redundancies to make certain that power and water remain uninterrupted so that operations continue. These shelters ensure life safety and maintain productivity, but they have other risks, potentially becoming islands in a sea of rubble and empty slabs, links to transportation and communication networks severed.
Neighborhoods that support overall resilience and social interaction fare better in a crisis. Instead of protection and uninterrupted comfort for a few, community self-sufficiency is supported through a network of resilient buildings and public spaces designed to shelter occupants during a storm and become hubs in the recovery phase with information, food, public assistance, job and housing markets, and community meetings. Where public facilities are limited, private spaces can serve in these roles. Examples include:
- Rouses Supermarkets in New Orleans strives to be the “last store to close and first to open” in every hurricane as they were in the 2005 hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. The stores strengthened their buildings and supply chain to ensure deliveries in the aftermath, and serve as community hubs with charging points, check cashing, and message boards.
- The Rockaway Beach Surf Club in Queens became a relief center following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, withstanding 6 feet of surge. Loyal members of the surf community used social media networks to post lists of needed materials, and the parking lot became a point of distribution for food, water, and cleaning supplies. The Surf Club was also the headquarters for volunteer cleanup crews in the Rockaways.
These examples are familiar and convenient physical locations with loosely programmed spaces such as parking lots, porches, or seating areas which were repurposed in a crisis. They also had the resources (financial or social) to restore links to the outside world quickly.
Traditionally, it fell to schools to perform the function of shelter and recovery centers, but it is important to get children back into school as quickly as possible; using classrooms for housing creates a direct conflict with education. Libraries can fill this gap, but many cities are reducing the budget for developing, staffing, and operating libraries, leaving neighborhoods without intrinsic resources for recovery.
Architects can help communities analyze their risks and understand potential adaptation measures. We can outline gaps in neighborhood services, identify buildings that can be used in recovery, incorporate design strategies that provide options during and after a disaster, and help build a network of resiliency. The design of a single resilient building has a ripple effect on a neighborhood, but architects also create the conditions for social interaction, active street life, beauty, and equity in communities, all of which are characteristics of resilience. Our profession needs to take the lead in preparing the built environment intensifying hazards.
Image: The Waveland Business Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, by unabridged Architecture, is elevated above
the coastal floodplain to provide additional protection against storm surge and sea level rise. A double roof system
provides redundant protection from intense rainfall and allows people to circulate outside. Photo: Eugenia Uhl
Allison Anderson, FAIA, founded unabridged Architecture in 1995, a firm recognized for civic projects which are defensible against climate challenges. Allison is the 2019 chair of the AIA Resilience and Adaptation Advisory Group, and has written articles on resilience, including: “Adapting to Climate-Sensitive Hazards through Architecture,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science, 2017; and “The Role of Designers in Advancing Resilience” in Optimizing Community Infrastructure, Elsevier, 2019.
The AIA supports policies, programs, and practices that promote adaptable and resilient buildings and communities. The AIA’s Resilience and Adaptation Advisory Group empowers members with awareness of emerging issues and has created a 9-course series focused on Resilience to provide the resources to equip members with the knowledge and skills needed to address natural hazards and climate change.