Envision Resilience: Nantucket Challenge

Dwelling on the Edge

University of Florida | Envision Resilience: Nantucket Challenge | Spring 2021

Dwelling on the Edge

University of Florida | Envision Resilience: Nantucket Challenge | Spring 2021

Copyright © 2021 University of Florida All rights reserved.

Professor Jeffrey Carney Teaching Assistant Carla Brisotto Student Contributers Andrea Aristiguieta Eoin Balara Erika Blandon Alex Boucher Avery Dunavant Celine Haddad Ana Hernandez Sophia Hernandez Aimee Lawson

Gizangely Marrero Camila Moreno Morgan Mulholland Christopher Rubio Andreina Sojo Suzanne Tielemans Moises Villanueva

Special Thanks Envision Resiliance: Nantucket Challenge Challenge Co-Chairs: Marty Hilton, Robert Miklos

Book printed and bound in The United States of America.

Contents Studio Overview 06 Project 1 Making For Movement 11 Project 2 Reading and Writing Place 19 Project 3 Designing Futures 37 Team 1 Marsh Fellows

Team 2 Engaging an Indeterminate Coastal Zone Team 3 Beinecke Square

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Team 4 The Progressing Village Conclusion

55 71 87 102

Nantucket Challenge

The Spring 2021 Design 8 senior architecture studio developed a series of tactical approaches to sea level rise adaptation along Nantucket’s urban edge.

On the surface Nantucket appears locked in time, but the island community has demonstrated a strong capacity for change since its earliest days.

This studio has searched for, documented, and invented narratives of adaptation, built on what we have learned about Nantucket, and what our experience from Florida has brought to the project.

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3rd Generation Transformation – Suzanne Tielemans

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Studio Overview

The Envision Resilience: Nantucket Challenge “seeks to inspire the community to imagine a future that is adaptive in the face of sea level rise by bringing together the insights of local experts, the innovative thinking of graduate students, and the stories of people who call the Island home.” – ERNC Website description Working alongside and in communication with students from the University of Miami, Harvard University, Yale University, and Northeastern University students individually and collectively considered this challenge through the lens of design practice at a truly transformative time for society and our profession. The studio participated in a series of talks by internationally recognized speakers organized by ReMain Nantucket throughout the semester.

Images demonstrating the architecture of movement, resistance, and change. 1.

Janet Echelman, “1.8” installation above London’s Oxford Circus. 2. Anuradha Mathur And Dilip Da Cunha, “Working Tides”. 3. Mark Smout and Laura Allen, “Liquid Kingdom” 8

Semester Schedule Spring SpringTerm Term2021 2021 J

The studio consisted of three cumulative projects.

Two early design exercises contributed to a vision for the transformation of a multi-block portion of coastal Nantucket. The following describes the three projects:

Semester Starts Semester Start

Making for Movement – This 2-week exploration and construction of a “machine” responsive to changing environmental factors (i.e. sun, wind, water). These projects were intensively sited in environments accessible to students in their current location in Florida.

Project 11Review Project Review F

Challenge Starts Challenge Start Project Review Project 22Review

M

Reading and Writing Place – This 2-week effort positioned students “in” Nantucket through a critical engagement with computational data, remote observation, narrative, and online research. The excercise asked each student to map and construct a spatial narrative for future design interventions.

A

Designing Futures – The primary project of this semester centered the studio in the dynamics of change and how built environments engage the natural environment over time. Nantucket must choose a path forward – to accommodate, protect, or retreat. Students worked as part of teams and individually to design residential/mixed-use communities in relations to sea level rise vulnerability.

Project Internal Review Project 33Review M

The result is 16 accounts of dwelling, tested over 3 generations along Nantucket’s coastal edge. We hope that these designs can contribute to an ongoing conversation in the community about adaptation to climate change.

J

9

ERNC Final Review ER Final Jury Jury Review

ER Presentation in in ERNC Presentation Nantucket Nantucket

Dwelling on the Edge “To dwell then meant to inhabit one’s own traces, to let daily life write the webs and knots of one’s biography into the landscape. This writing could be etched into stone by successive generations or sketched anew for each rainy season with a few reeds and leaves. Man’s habitable traces were as ephemeral as their inhabitants.”

— Ivan Illich, “Dwelling” “Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts— serious, sad thoughts—and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.”

— Gaston Bachelard, “The Poetics of Space” Climate change induced sea level rise is already having dramatic impact on Nantucket, resulting in the worst coastal flooding in the island’s history. Flood hazards are expected to continue to increase, forcing the island to reckon with its occupation of the extreme coastal edge.

Simply put, Nantucket must choose a path forward – to accommodate, protect, or retreat.

But how does a community collectively decide to change?

Who decides? What is the timeline for retreat? Who pays?

More, do we work to preserve vulnerable places rooted in the past or do we transform those elements to be better prepared in a new and changing environment?

Images of dwellings responsive to their environments. 1. Whitaker, Lyndon, Moore, and Turnbull, Sea Ranch, CA. 2. Brian Maccay-Lions, “Two Hulls House” 3. Space 10, “Urban Village Project” 10

The primary project of this semester will center us in the dynamics of change and how built environments engage the natural environment over time. This final project will also position us (as architects) in a process that is often taken on at a larger infrastructural or ecosystem scale through the work of landscape architects, engineers, and city planners. What does the architect bring to this process?

Team 4

Over 11 weeks, students worked as part of a team of four and individually, to design four small communities with four individual dwellings each. Each unit and complex engaged specifically with the contextual and programmatic needs of the particular site and include additional program that reflected the specific urban context (i.e. boat storage, office/commercial space, rental housing).

Team 3

Each team was provided a transect of land perpendicular to the water’s edge and extending uphill. A site concept was developed within this transect for a community for three dwelling, tested over a duration of three 30-year generations of occupation starting in 2025. As a team, each group wdeveloped a site plan that integrated the project into the immediate context and proposed a 3-generation strategy for the site. This adaptation strategy required the team to form “agreements” that were tested through their individual projects.

Team 2

Team 1

Nantucket town area with project boundaries and four sites.

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PROJECT 1 Making For Movement

How do we occupy the space of change?

It’s assumed that buildings shield us from danger, they block the wind, elevate us from conflict.

However, architecture can do far more than separate us from a changing world.

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Structure of wind studies - Celine Haddad

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We began by simply inserting ourselves into the environment – first individually, then in built form, not to encroach but to reflect, register, and engage with the systems we observed.

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Wave Displacement of Fabric Study – Morgan Mulholland

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As climate change affects our environments, our buildings should actively engage us in dialogue with this process.

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Observation

Speculation

Sand Erosion Study and Speculation - Erika Blandon

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PROJECT 2 Reading and Writing Place

Team 1: Flora, Fauna, and Coastal Dune Ecosystems Christopher Rubio and Andreina Sojo

Nantucket has been recognized widely as a botanical “hotspot” with one of the greatest concentrations of rare species in Massachusetts.

Overall, Nantucket’s thirty-two thousand acres contain more rare species than most other areas of a similar size in the Northeastern United States. This is due to a wide variety of environmental factors such as soil condition and slope, weather patterns, temperature, flooding, and, of course, human intervention.

Nantucket formed 12,000 years ago during the last ice age. As a retreating glacier moved across the land, it deposited silt, clay, sand, and other organic sediments at seemingly random locations. Rising sea levels also separated the island from the mainland. The plants (and animals) left on the island either had to adapt or they would be eliminated from the environment. The plants that thrive on Nantucket must be hard and able to withstand frigid winter temperatures, occasional ocean overwash during nor’easters, salt spray, and the constant winds. (For example: Plants adapt to wind and cold by growing lower and closer to the ground to shield themselves). Which brings us to Adaptability/Change - The people (and architecture) must be willing to adapt and change, much like nature has, or they will be wiped off the island.

Coastal Ecosystems: Fauna and Flora

Fauna and Migration

Habitats and Flora 22

A great percentage of the landform of the island of Nantucket is defined by the seasonal storms and the sea-level rise (SLR). The influence of these two factors constantly modifies the land and it also stimulates the migration of natural habitats, such as the Coastal Dune ecosystem. The coastal hydrodynamics and waves models determine the coastal morphology by transforming the coastal dunes and redistributing their diverse fauna and flora. Moreover, the natural forces define the movement of sand grains along the beach and create a constructive process of dunes form a natural barrier that serves as island protection from flooding. Therefore, the Nantucket shoreline has coastal variations that could be defied by the soil’s material composition, water characteristics, and physical characteristics. As a result, Nantucket’s ecosystems are a complex natural structure that adapts and responds to coastal flooding and violent atmospheric disturbances and for this reason, it could be considered a site that demonstrates coastal resilience.

Factors of Coastal Change 23

Team 2: Geomorphology, Topography, and Bathymetry Andrea Aristiguieta & Suzanne Tielemans

The form of the geomorphology, bathymetry, and topography of Nantucket and Nantucket Sound can be traced back to 15,000 years ago during the end of the Ice Age. The glacier sheets melting and displacing large amounts of sediment caused the land of Nantucket, once connected to the mainland, to be formed in the way that it is. In the present day, and 400 feet of sea-level rise later, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are now islands with most of the previously exposed land underwater. The proximity to the source of the sediment displacement, called moraines, during the end of the Ice Age and the size of the moraines are the reasons for the 300 foot mean elevation and cliffs of Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket’s 30 foot mean elevation and characteristics.

Erosion is a large threat to all of these coastal environments in the coastal area of Cape Cod, and especially the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Nantucket’s coasts are especially at risk because of the characteristic of having a lower topographical elevation all the way around the periphery of the island. Water currents also are a factor for determining which parts of the island(s) erode more because of the angle and velocity of the water and their relationship to the island’s sediment.

The nature of the island’s geology is in constant flux historically, in addition to present-day threats of weather extremes and sea-level rise, results in the prediction of a detrimental threat to Nantucket as a whole. Although erosion is a gradual process, one can see the creeping effects of the coastlines moving closer to the structure of the island and its inhabitants.

Geologic History Montage

Scientific Diagrams on Island Formation 24

Solutions to this include moving houses, and “patching” the coastlines to slow down the process of erosion using geotubes.

The use of the geotubes is successful in slowing down erosion to an extent--for they fail to work against extreme coastal weather conditions, such as hurricanes and heavy storms.

The understanding and investigation of the relationship of all of these factors (the history of the island’s geomorphological properties, the island’s topographical properties, and the water) and their connection with the process of erosion is key for moving forward ideas for the future of the island itself.

The main focus of this study will be how the curved shape of the island (caused by the geomorphological history) determines the intensity of erosion— the North side of Nantucket being fairly protected and facing less general erosion than the rest of the island.

This study will also investigate the experiential conditions of these coastlines.

Experiential perspective of eastern beach

Experiential perspective of northern beach

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Nantucket Beaches

Team 3: Climate, Climate Change, and Seasonality Erika Blandon and Alexander Boucher

Storm Surge Section Analyzing climate patterns and seasonal shifts allows us to peer deeper into potential threats and opportunities that may not be immediately obvious. Hurricanes, with their storm surges, and extreme weather events such as blizzards present obvious and immediate threats that are fairly well understood but when compounded with other risk factors such as watershed locations, sea level rise and tidal patterns, we can begin to make a deeply uncertain future more clear. Furthermore, these storms are expected to increase in intensity as the earth’s atmosphere and oceans warm, so the importance of understanding all effects Eel Grass and Scalloping Map

Seasons in Nantucket are fairly mild compared to those of the mainland northeast US as proximity to the sea mitigates summer heat and winter cold. However, disruptions are beginning to occur and are expected to increase with climate change as both summers and winters become warmer, leading to potential plant and animal life die-offs.

Rising Strength of North Atlantic Hurricanes

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Seasonality allows for a change of perception of time on Nantucket. Seasons play a vital role in the well-being of its residents and wildlife. Climate change has affected Nantucket’s economy and habitats as increased warmer water temperatures and the amount of sunlight that cause hazardous algae blooms (HAB) in ponds and oceans. HAB blocks sunlight from eelgrass on the water’s surface. The scalloping industry, one of many seasonal local businesses on the Island, is threatened because scallops depend on eelgrass as a nursery and protection from tides. Other seasonal tipping points due to climate change are flowers that bloom earlier in spring, a fewer yield of cranberries at the bogs, and a decrease in fish and shellfish that are migrating north due to increased temperatures.

Hurricane History

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Team 4: Sea Level Rise Sophia Hernandez and Ana Hernandez

Given the indeterminacy of both the future’s climate and environment, architecture today has to hold up to an inflexible standard that we as designers cannot possibly predict with any accuracy. While sea level rise is imminent, the degree of its severity has left both scientists and the residents of Nantucket Island questioning the future. Research has shown that there are several different outcomes for what Nantucket’s coastal edge will look like in twenty years. This range of data and threat of indeterminacy tasks designers and engineers with the weighted decision of problem solving for a certain coastal prediction and having a higher chance of failing, or to plan for a more vague future and be tasked with a larger set of issues and necessary strategies.

High Risk vs. High Value Areas

Diagram of Coastal Edge Shift

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Nantucket architecture must now ask questions like how can it be picked up an moved back, be lifted and secured, or be protected. The mappings and broader analysis of sea level rise has brought to the forefront of discussion how high risk areas might overlap with high cost and high priority areas such as the historic Nantucket harbor. The green mapping extricates existing topography, existing building density, and flood patterns in areas that have been, and are at, high risk of erosion and allows a visual study of how these categories work against each other.

Endangered Coastal Edges 29

Team 5: Historic Preservation

By Eoin Balara and Aimee Lawson

Preservation

Hadwen House, 96 Main Street 1846

Despite Nantucket existing in an everchanging environment, it still manages to resist change, expansion, and growth through its architecture. Preservation in Nantucket is essential to the sense of place the island creates. Making demolition a last resort, Nantucket is always preserving, repairing, repurposing, or even relocating entire buildings to preserve the island’s character.

For the original settlements on Nantucket, house materials were scarce due to few trees on the island. The materials used for homes were often imported. Rather than demolish a building when it was no longer used, inhabitants dissembled the homes and reused the materials in new construction. There was a strong sense of preservation around the scarcity of building materials.

As the Nantucket community grew, the Quaker roots of the island maintained a strong hold onto the lifestyle and building design.

Buildings were functional and avoided unnecessary details. The Quaker influence remained prominent until the early 19th century, making drastic changes to building design rare. After this time new architectural styles emerged, though the practice of maintaining a similar style among all new buildings had already made its mark.

1600

1700

1800

Macy House, 12 Liberty Street, 1720

Restoration

Lawrence House, 35 India St, 1786

Shanunga, 10 Broadway, 2019

Coleman House, Hawthorne Lane, 1722

Shanunga, 10 Broadway, 1682

Jethro Coffin House, 16 Sunset Hill 1927

Jethro Coffin House, 16 Sunset Hill 1686

Coffin House, 60 Cliff Rd, 1722

Reconstruction

14 Pine Street, 1756, 2019

51 B Centre St, 1887

8 Ash St, 2019

Thomas Macy Warehouse, 12 Straight Wharf, 1846

8 Ash St, 1765

Acadamey Hill Apt, 4 Westminster St, 1799

George Gardner House, 8 Pine Street, 1750

Starbuck House, 105 Main Street, 1690

Fencing

Used to create a uniform street edge among houses Picket and baluster designs with simple details

Window Bays

Historically 3-5 bays of windows on the facade Windows aligned with chimney and main door

Shingling

Shingles were used to give houses a strong seal against wind Shingles or clapboard facades were installed by shipbuilders originally

Chimneys

Originally central in house planning Sometimes placed to the side to account for later house expansion Fireplaces were dominant elements in different rooms

1900

30 Building Typology Timeline

Rehabilitation

Street Preservation Montage Today, Nantucket’s Historic District Commission has no jurisdiction over the interiors of historic homes. While they have regulations for preserving the exterior of these historic buildings, there are no rules for tearing out the interior for more modern amenities. Additionally, the HDC lists that some historic buildings can be marked as “noncontributing” which eases the regulations protecting that building. To continue to uphold the historic beauty of Nantucket’s architecture, the ideas of preservation should be questioned and redefined to better suit the modern world. Nantucket can continue to be a model community for the protection of historic architecture.

Public and Transition Space Plan 31

Team 6: Economy, Whaling and Tourism Celine Haddad and Morgan Mulholland

In its initial stages, this analysis investigated the economics, tourism, and whaling aspects of Nantucket as separate entities, only to discover that they are all interconnected through a temporal shift. In Nantucket’s primal days, whaling was the main source of economic gain, deeming it the “Whaling Capital of the World” from the 1750s-1830s. The mid 19th century came with the discovery of gold and the American Civil War, taking men from their families and relocating them to California or the army. This, in combination with the unethical aspects of whaling, led the industry to decline in the 1870s. In an attempt to revitalize the economy and bring status back to the island, the people of Nantucket capitalized on the island’s charm, location, and whaling history, shifting the economy from whaling to tourism by the late 20th century.

From this discovery comes the question of consequence. Tourism

has changed the island’s dynamic, making it “untouchable” to those who inhabit it most often. Inflated home prices displace workers off the island, though they still commute across the Nantucket sound everyday. Daily citizens on the island face homelessness, while the extremely wealthy buy vacation homes to occupy for a couple weeks out of the year. The economy relies heavily on the summer months, when family vacation times and weather conditions are most ideal.

It becomes an analysis of the scale of time and the displacement of people, both to and from the island. The diagrams and mappings illustrate the temporal shifts of the economy in conjunction with their consequences, investigating their spatial relationships.

Worden, Alan, and Victoria Powers. “Visualizations.” Visualizations - Nantucket Data Platform, 2018

CONTEXT SECTION: destinations + zones 32

MAPPING: displacement of workers

PLANISPHERE: economic displacement

TIMELINE: the parallel economies

SPECULATON: third era of Nantucket | A city on the water

SEASONAL MONTAGE: economic growth with population 33

Team 7: Culture, Race, and Demographics Avery Dunavant and Camila Moreno

Nantucket’s rich and distinct culture has cemented this small island as an international destination for tourists and retirees. A large variety of events, traditions, history, and recreation assures that there is something for every visitor to enjoy their time on the island.

The islands exclusivity and prestige has created a demand for space on the island, bringing some of the highest real estate prices in the United States. These high prices have forced some of its essential workers to live off-island, resulting in calls for affordable housing and rent control legislation for the island.

Town Location Study

Our investigation into the culture, race and demographics took us through Nantucket’s history, through periods from Whaling to Industry and with many diverse groups of people like Native Americans, Actors, Artists and Settlers who all called the island home and contributed to its unique palimpsest of culture. In recent years the attention has turned to the environment, where processes like sea level rise and erosion threaten many homes and livelihood of island residents. We set out to see how race, culture and demographics played into the idea of environmentalism on the island.

Acknowledgements

The initial investigation looked at two main areas on the islandTown and Siasconset and compared their respective histories, demographics and environmental approaches.

Siasconset Location Study

Historical Montage 34

Average Price Per Square Foot of Homes Across Nantucket

The second part of this investigation consisted of investigating average property values in relation to their location and elevation above sea level to see if these factors have any correlation. Our initial hypothesis was that locations adjacent to the water were still more valuable, despite their low elevation and vulnerability to flooding and erosion. Data from a tract that ran east-west through the island supported this claim, showing higher price per square foot of properties in the coastal communities of Madaket, Siasconset, and areas in Town that were closer to the harbor. While these findings were not all that surprising, it brought about the question of whether or not rising sea levels will have an impact on the real estate market of Nantucket in the next generations. Will land at a higher elevation appreciate in the coming years as sea levels continue to reclaim coastal shorelines? Only time will tell.

Island Topography- East/West Study Tract Highlighted 35

Team 8: Transportation Systems and Mobility Gizangely Marrero and Moises Villanueva

How will the integration of new land use, efficient urban transport, and future proposal projects affect the existing transportation conditions as well as overall circulation of Nantucket?

Much on Nantucket's rich history and uniqueness can be traced back to its initial development of it's transportation systems on mobility of the ferry and the railroad. Broken off from the rest of the United States, Nantucket created a culture with these modes of mobility, becoming a catalyst and industrial center for the whaling and shipping industry. With the decline of the whaling industry in the late 1800s, Nantucket introduced the use of vehicles thus began the construction of roadways and transit systems.

Today's transit system is mainly composed of one way streets where vehicles and bicyclists must share the road with caution. Currently there are approximately 29 miles of paths on Nantucket, which are well used among both year-round and seasonal populations.

Pedestrians at times also share the road because the sidewalk system is not as effective as it should be. It is with these shared scales of mobility that create a cultural identity to the islands circulation yet there is a lot of work that needs to be done, especially to make them ADA compliant.

Sea level rising affects not only the physical road conditions of its transportation systems but also affects its residential and commercial circulation of the island. The current analysis of Nantucket’s Transportation systems and mobility does not only focus on the immediate relocation of its circulation rather focuses more on the possible evolution of its current identity to focus on the oncoming projects ahead. The island was not prepared for its current state of popularity nor was it originally design to combat again climate change. It is with this analysis that we can depict whether Nantucket will still remain to thrive under its current methods or will a new culture identity be created.

Street Transportation Study - Bike and Car

Street Transportation Study - Pedestrian 36

Coastal Transportation Axis

Streets

Bicycle Routes

Future projects could affect the residents of Nantucket because many of them might consider that a breach of their town as well as hinder the time and space needed to work in Downtown.

Comprehensive strategies for improving the traffic circulation and access to both ferry terminals, such as widening sidewalks, and scheduling arrivals and departures that do not coincide with peak traffic periods, will be critical to addressing the seasonal tourist congestion and safety issues.

NRTA Bus

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PROJECT 3 Designing Futures

TEAM 1

Washington Street: Creating an Adaptive Framework for an Indeterminate Future

Celine Haddad, Chris Rubio, Alex Boucher, Ana Hernandez

The marsh extends directly off of the harbor, making it very susceptible to immediate flooding and storm surge.

Long term projections of sea-level rise show a steady, inland approach of water, although the numbers aren’t certain. It is important to design an architecture for this constant state of indeterminacy.

Aerial Transect

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2025

2055

43

2085

BIRDS EYE VIEW: Entire Community

Our proposal engages the site in order to address the difficulty of sea level rise by preventively establishing a module that is kinetically able to withstand temporary and permanent flooding. Through a unifying elevated boardwalk we have decided to create a new occupational plane in response to sea-level rise which is capable of retreating in-land if necessary.

Transect site plan Dwelling 1

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Dwelling 3 Dwelling 2 Dwelling 4

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Team Urban Design Agreements • Individual residencies will arise from different configurations of the established module.

• Each residency will come up with a dynamic system to translate verticaal change in water to a vertical change in dwelling.

• Each residency will contain some portion of the marsh market program.

Low Water

High Water

Active Response Diagram 46

PROCESSES

Programmatic Diagrams

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Celine Haddad | The Deconstructed House Exploring Modularity Through Functions of Dwelling

By deconstructing the house into its functional modules, we are able to delegate an active response to sea level rise for each function.

Serve Space 48

2025 Congruence

2055 Transition

2085 Engagement 49

Ana Hernandez | The Flood House

This dwelling is designed to change itself passively as the water rises, admitting flood and eventually becoming a public space overtaken by nature.

Ground Floor Plan

50

2025

2055

2085 51

Alex Boucher | The Caretaker’s Home

Site Plan

Using sea level rise as an invitation to engage the environment, this project relies on adaptive land use as a solution to changing water levels.

Ground Floor Plan

Transverse Section 52

2025

2055

2085 Dwelling and Boardwalk Section

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Christopher Rubio | House in the Marsh

Adjusting to the erratically changing weather and island enviromental conditions, The people of Nantucket will have to sacrifice some of their lifestyles to be able to adapt to the water. From these losses come new ways of living. Ties to nature are as strong as ever.

Dweling Section 54

2025

2055

2085

Dwelling Location on Site 55

Team 2

Washington Street: Engaging an Indeterminate Coastal Zone Andrea Aristiguieta, Andreina Sojo, Gizangely Marrero, Morgan Mulholland

The success of Nantucket is strongly tied to its real estate, historic architecture, and its relationship to the ocean.

Historically, land and water activities have occurred exclusively to each other. A traditional map distinguishes what is land and what is water by a hard edge at the coast.

We believe that between land and water is not an edge but an immensely dynamic and indeterminate zone.

Within this zone, natural systems such as salt marshes create a transition and a protective barrier between water and upland. Nantucket’s ecosystem and culture is most vibrant and most vulnerable within this changing zone. The urban development along the coast is enriched by housing, commercial, and historic areas. As the sea level is rising, Nantucket’s culture and ecology will need to adapt.

Zone of Indeterminacy

2025 2055 2085 Sea Level 58

Site Plan Transect

1

2 3 4

Blurred Coastal Edges

59

Team Urban Design Agreements: • Designs allow for porosity and the frequent appearance and disappearance of water on the site.

• Shifting public program at the ground level will adapt to change with time.

• The design responds to the variety of conditions surrounding the site (infrastructure, commercial, residential, historic architecture, marsh).

• The project intends to be minimally invasive as the environment changes.

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Shift in Occupancy Over Time

Elevation and Sectiont of Entire Proposal 61

Between Union Street and Washington Street, we are proposing an interface that stitches together the vibrant marine ecosystems with an equally vibrant residential community. The proposed community is comprised of the various, pre-existing surroundings of the site and is supported by a minimally invasive plinth raised out of harm's way of the projected rising sea level. This proposal serves to allow the continuation of Nantucket's rich culture while celebrating and protecting its natural ecosystems. Over time, the ground level will be taken over and given back to the encroaching seas and it’s marine life.

Strategy Diagram 62

Interfacing Site Surroundings

Proposal Aerial View 63

Morgan Mulholland | The Heirloom House

The Heirloom House allows its occupants to adjust the vulnerability of the dwelling as the seasons and climate changes. The tectonic systems are used to cover or uncover the glass surfaces to allow for passive heating or cooling, protection from storms, or for additional privacy.

2025

2055

2085 64

Southern Exposure/ Passive Heating

Winter

Passive Cooling Storm Protection

Summer

Floor Plan 1 65

Adjustable Tectonic System Section

Gizy Marrero | Marsh House The first level of this dwelling is exposed to the natural conditions.

This space is intended to allow the dwelling occupants to experience these conditions without needing to exit the dwelling or needing to enter the public space. By 2085 in the proposed narrative, this dwelling is occupied by a team of marine biologists who are utilizing the exposed first level to access and study the marine life that has taken over the ground level.

Concept Section

66

2025

2055

2085 67

Andrea Aristiguieta | Dwelling Between Levels

Rather than reject the changing conditions of the site, this dwelling seeks to create new ways of occupation by seamlessly stitching the constructed to the natural through a vertical layering system.

Aerial View Showing Location of Dwelling 68

2025

2055

Exploded Axonometric of Layered Occupancy

2085 69

Andreina Sojo | The 356 Days House

Connecting with Nantucket’s natural areas and architectural traditions

Housing looks to encourage human interaction with Nantucket’s fauna and flora by allowing the occupants to adjust the architectural elements of the dwelling to experience seasons.

Third Floor Plan

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2025

Winter

2055

Spring

2085

Summer 71

TEAM 3

Downtown: Beinecke Square

Avery Dunavant, Sophia Hernandez, Camila Moreno, Moises Villanueva

Historic Context Located just west of the Old South Wharf, on the corner of New whale and Salem street, our site is a formerly industrial area that has served as a storage facility for the islands fuel supply since the early 1960’s. The eleven decommissioned fuel tanks that sit on this site are some of last remaining structures representing Nantucket’s lost industrial past.

These tanks no longer serve their original purpose of holding fuel for the island. Public sentiment towards the tanks is overwhelmingly negative and calls for their removal are numerous. However, few have expressed that their loss would be a detriment to the history of the island and its resilient waterfront. The site sits in an intermediate zone between Nantucket’s historic downtown to the west and famous wharfs to the east. This location makes the site itself a prime opportunity for new development that begins to reimagine the waterfront and surrounding areas, as a vibrant civic space that works for the community and celebrates the rich historical palimpsest of the area.

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Industry and The Artist Colony

Robert Miklos

Historically, Nantucket’s waterfront has hosted a variety of these large round storage tanks for almost a century. During the early 1930’s and 40’s the old wharfs built to accommodate the former waterfront industry were largely abandoned, and subsequently occupied by artists looking for cheap housing. These artists produced artworks depicting everyday scenes on the island, with some capturing the tanks as part of the community and part of the character that makes the island unique.

A tradition that still continues today.

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Ruth Sutton

John Austin

Sea Level Rise As sea levels rise over the next generations, appropriate measures must be taken to confront and reconcile with these new higher water levels. These new levels should not be seen as a threat but rather an opportunity to continue to build upon Nantucket’s history of resilience while simultaneously providing awareness of sea level rise through thoughtful and adaptive design.

The site itself is relatively elevated in comparison to the surrounding wharfs and parking lot to the north.

NOAA Intermediate High Sea Level Rise Predictions project that water levels would rise two and a half feet over the next 35 years and over four and a half feet by 2085. This would result in less than one foot of standing water on site by 2085, with tidal and storm surge events increasing water levels on site to around four feet.

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Confrontation Our goal is to confront sea level rise directly. Rather than traditional methods of rejecting water in the way that bulkheads do, by voluntarily inviting water into the site we can create a meaningful interface between water and site occupants. In addition, we also investigated the history of Nantucket’s industrial waterfront and how we can reimagine this site through celebrating a critical era of Nantucket’s history.

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Team Urban Design Agreements Principals agreed upon by our group can be categorized into two main focuses, agreements based on context, and agreements based on spatial and programmatic operations.

Contextual agreements pertain generally to existing features on site. Consideration of water infiltration and fuel tank use varied between each project, however played a vital role in each designs development.

Spatial and programmatic agreements drove much of the sites layout and facilitation of pedestrian movement to and through the site. We all agreed that the best use of this location would be a complete turn from the walled-off and unwelcoming site present today to one of civic engagement and public gathering.

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Ultimately, The Beinecke Square proposals will serve as a stitch between the wharfs and the downtown area by reinvigorating the indeterminate zone left behind by former 79

industry. This new interface will provide the opportunity for a diverse range of experiences over many years that responds and adapts to rising water levels.

Avery Dunavant | Adaptive Reuse Experimental Dwellings Using Historical Structures The Tank Park proposal places the emphasis of resilient reuse at the forefront of design thinking. Once unsightly fuel tanks are reimagined from their original crude purpose, into a dynamic dwelling and civic space that serves to engage the public, while reflecting the core idea of resiliency that Nantucket was built on. While more formal development proposals provide more of the same architectural aesthetic that Nantucket is known for, the exiting tanks provide ample opportunity for provocative and intriguing design that celebrates the past while planning for a resilient future. This proposal takes into account the public’s wish for the tanks to be dismantled, however on a different time frame than some might expect or demand. The dwelling is expected to be dismantled and transformed over generations as occupants leave the waterfront as sea levels rise, taking with them materials that they will use at a site further inland.

2025 The Artist The artist or artists live and work in and around the dwelling, showcasing their works to the public through exhibitions of various forms of art like sculpture, film, painting and even graffiti.

2055 The Transition The transition phase is one where the dwelling is between residents. Parts of the dwelling were disassembled by the departing artist while water begins to rise arounf the foundation.

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2085 The Ecologist With one to two feet of standing water on the site at all times, the structure is in an excellent position for studying marine life such as shellfish and eelgrass from the floating docks.

Former Tank Footprints as Gathering Spaces

Film Projection on Tank Exterior

The large structure of the existing tanks allow for experimentation with new and unique programs and for space-making and beyond traditional structural typologies. These structures offer the opportunity to reintroduce Nantucket’s rich history of artistry through showcasing new works of art like sculpture and film as a way to reengage the public and celebrate Nantucket’s arts scene.

Prinmary Dwelling Unit 81

Sophia Hernandez | Transformation by Deconstruction Reintegration of Industrial Character with Nantucket Tradition

This project is an operation of Transformation via Deconstruction in which the industrial memory, and the possibly unintentional tradition founded by change on the island are integrated into a proposed grid language. Currently the saltbox style on Nantucket is inflexible, however in history, this style of architecture was used to facilitate change rather than to preserve an island ideal.

Salt Box Progression Diagram Longitudinal Section

Latitudinal Section

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In conjunction with reimagining the oil tanks footprints on the site, and imprints on island memory, this project works to bring back industrial scale and character to an architectural language with an exposed structural system. This system in its basic physical sense is a twofold effort. Its structural needs, as well as the the bracketing of form and movement, is addressed. The building method of Nantucket is inherently adaptive as well as transformative.

Throughout their lifetime, the Saltbox

houses typical to the island might receive additions, be relocated, and, eventually, be deconstructed for repurposing. The transformative process of the salt box form is deconstructed so that movement could be orchestrated upon entrance to the southeast corner of the site. The lifted dwelling forms derived from this deconstruction are bracketed by the structural system so that they act as an overhead condition that guides public space and pedestrian movement below.

Exterior Garden

East Elevation

Exploded Component DIagram

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Moises Villanueva | Industrial Organized Decay When thinking about sea level rise it is understood that this change often entails a sense of decay in both infrastructure as well as land lost to the sea. The theme of this proposal investigates this negative concept through dwelling design based on intentionally organized development and eventual decay.

This sense of decay led to the investigation of how industrial grid systems and modular organizations can combat or reform Nantuckets challenge of decay. From sea level rise, as well as natural decay. The residential proposal focuses on a terracing modular systems that are contained through the use of multi-scaled grid systems in which residential units are connected with platform spaces or boardwalks for both public and private uses.

Collectivism

Individualism

The proposal follows a temporal yet decaying transfromation across three generations that focuses on the life of one boathand. As time progresses and the responsiblities of the boathand change, so does the resdiential proposal. Each generation follows a specific form and function which is then easily maniupalted to fit the next generation through the use of a modular grid system.

Aerial Perspective 84

Degeneration

2025

Ground Floor Plan 2055

Second Floor Plan

The ground is an industrial raised complex where ground floor is set as congregation space that asissts in the circulation of program and restriction of water.

2085

The site is designed with multi-leveled ground conditions and walkways adaptable for circulation based on water flow.

This grid system focuses on how with each individual dwelling the site can transfrom into an elevated second street level. As water arrives to the site whether through sea level rise ior through seasonal rains, people are forced to retreat and with that this second street level through the use of platforms and walkways would replace the lost of street level public space and circulation.

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Camila Moreno | Modular Stratification This project uses modular arrangements within the units and ground along an overarching grid system. The units shift and grow over time while the ground lets in water from the harbor at specific points in time as sea level changes. The incoming water becomes a purposeful interaction with site occupants and the units shift over and stack to make room for the next generational inhabitants.

Transforming for dwelling, while keeping in the mind the historical industrial waterfront allows for an opportunity to reminisce the previous while engaging the present.

To keep the memory of the industral history, remnants of the tank show their footprints carved within the ground and turned into public spaces and reflection pools. The grid agreement let spaces organize naturally within the site and became a driver for the project.

Using the grid as a template to then shift and slide units upward and over was used to dictate the generational shifts when water was moved around the site. The Dwelling becomes interlocking building blocks for the occupant to reside in and slowly transform over time along with the natural harbor waterline.

Wrap

Private

Public

Circulation

Level 2 Plan

Level 3 Plan

Modular Axonometric 86

Stack Shift Gather

Carve

Generational Dwelling Sections

2025

2055

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2085

TEAM 4

Brant Point: The Progressing Village

Eoin Balara, Erika Blandon, Aimee Lawson, Suzanne Tielemans

As a part of our observations, we saw that the Southwest part of our site reaches into a marshland, and the Northeast part reaches toward the beachfront and has a natural ability to create dunes and accumulate land.

Our site is in the middle of these two very different conditions: the marshland and the dunescape. In addition, the site is very flat and is at a high risk for flooding from sea level rise and erosion. Because of this, over the next 3 generations, Brant Point is going to change drastically--flood water will invade our site as sea level rises and the land is at high risk of erosion (see flood projection mapping).

Brant Point Lighthouse over time

Transect Section 90

Because of Brant point’s location relative to the island and currents, this area has the ability to grow and collect sand over time if we added infrastructure to help assist these natural processes.

Originally, observing the past and the current state of the land around the Brant Point Lighthouse, this area did not exist until the installation of ripraps, and as a result, giving the sand somewhere to collect against. Taking advantage of this passive ability is key to the possibility of adapting to climate change in this area.

Flood Projection Over Time

2025

2055

2085 91

The second part of our design strategy is more infrastructural. We plan on incorporating a canal system with our dwellings, so when the floodwaters inevitably come, the water can be redirected intentionally. In addition, by digging the canals, we are reinforcing the idea of building up the land by using the sand that was dug up from the canals in a cut and fill system. The method of preserving and building up as much sand as possible for this area would help the area keep pace with sea level rise.

Taking into consideration all of the natural factors at play on the island, this proposal sets out to actively build land on Prant point. The first part of our design strategy is the collecting of sand with the wind creating dunes-using the actual structure of the dwellings, the canal walls, columns, and strategically placed dune fencing to achieve this. Catching eroding sand in a passive way with the currents, much like how the ripraps were used at Brant Point Lighthouse, is another strategy to help build the land out from the water’s edge.

Design Strategy 3-D Overview 92

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Team Urban Design Agreements: Each team member came up with a series of agreements, and discussed which rules would be agreed upon that would influence the site and all of our dwellings.

To start, we agreed on canals cutting through the site in order to redirect the floodwaters, and as an opportunity of becoming another system of travel over time.

Canal walls and oyster gabions, which would be a part of our canal system, will serve as tracks for our dwellings to move, and as structure for the dwellings as well.

Boardwalks will become an informal way of travel between the dwellings and canal system.

Lastly, each of the dwellings will incorporate movement over time

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Oyster Gabions

Rotation of Indiana Bell Building 95

Incan Irrigation System

Erika Blandon | The Cultivated Canal Human Habitation + Oyster Habitat

This structure intends to be a dwelling that is based on oyster cultivation. The site, Brant Point, benefits from all the advantages that is unique to the Island.

In particular it enjoys the access to salt groundwater, at a constant temperature and is extremely rich in nutrients for phytoplankton. Marsh land is accessible to the area via canals. Moreover, the climatic conditions are favorable for both oyster growth and development.

Key 1. Broodstock holding + spawning area.

2. Larval culture area 3. Juvenile culture area

1.

2.

The combination of public and private spaces are integrative. Overtime, the living space is intended to multiply along the grid column system. Schematically, during the course of the first two generations, the public space that is set on tracks is intended to move as sea levels rise. This evolution will allow for the edge of the ground to be carved and allow docking spaces designated for residents along the canal. The conection between public infrastructure and dwelling space, is an adaptive approach to how residents of Nantucket can navigate and sustain themselves and the environment on the island as climate change affects the traditional way of life on the island.

3.

Plan View

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2055 96

Key 1. Oyster larvae are spawned inn the broodstock conditioninng lab.

2. The Larvae are moved to the conditioning tanks.

3. Algae cultures grow in the greenhouse.

4. Algae lab utilized to contain food for larvae in culture tanks below. Gravitation feeding is applied.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Longitutinal Section

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Aimee Lawson | Estuary Envelope The Estuary Envelope creates a space for people to experience the constantly changing environment.

Among three generations the space is initially occupied by Marine Biologists then transitions to an aquatic museum curator, and lastly aquatic artists.

This structure is occupied differently at each horizontal level. The below ground level is a public space, occupied by many aquatic species and by people. The ground level is open to the public and occupied by small bird species. The top floor is a private place occupied by residents and the largest bird species. Each level provides the occupant with a different environmental experience thus making them aware of the drastic changing environment in Nantucket.

2025

2055

Site Plan

2085 98

Over time, the water conditions will greatly impact the species that live among it. At the earliest stage, the water will be at it’s lowest salinity level and the species that live in it will consist of a mixture of freshwater and saltwater creatures.

As Brant Point begins to flood and fill the built canal system with salty ocean water, the freshwater species will begin to die off. This will commence the preservation of endangered species being kept in separate waters for studying, protecting, and observing for as long as they can live.

Once the canals have been flooded with too much ocean water, the surviving species will be strictly saltwater creatures.

Freshwater and Saltwater Mixture Species

This not only affects the species submerged in water, but also those that occupy the waters surface and the trees above. Many bird species catch their prey in the water and cannot consume prey from the saltier water environment and will not have a source of freshwater to survive off of.

Therefore, many above water species will die off as a result of increased water salinity.

Overall, this structure is a space designed to observe how the species of Brant Point will transform over time in the changing water conditions and how those living in the area can physically see the changes happening due to sea level rise.

Saltwater Remaining Species 99

Suzanne Tielemans | Generational Metamorph This structure, deemed the “Generational Metamorph” is generated from stories of a variety of people who could possibly occupy the dwelling. Different parts of the house are activated depending on who is living there over time. The idea of connecting to, and capturing the ephemerality of the site, Brant Point, and Nantucket itself heavily influenced the initial overall design and form of the dwelling. In addition, that idea and the state of the island shaped the narrative of the generations.

Unlike the other dwellings in the group, this dwelling does not physically move, however it does harness and capture movement in other ways, giving another scenario for how Nantucket’s future will be like through the mentods and infrastructure proposed by this group.

Entry Vignette

2025 100

The occupant of the first generation in 2025, “The Stormchaser”, is an idividual who is enamored by the wind and weather conditions of the island, and wants to be engulfed in the experience of the element.

Parts of the dwelling that are most active during his stay are areas that can be opened up/”exterior” to experience and recieve the wind. There is an interplay with what exactly constitutes as indoor and outdoor space. As for the state of the island in this generation, weather and storms are getting more extreme because of climate change.

The occupants of the second generation in 2055 are “The Honeymooners”. These individuals are a couple of anthropologists and professors who originally traveled to Nantucket to study the anthropological history of the island. They ended up falling in love with the island and buying a dwelling there. The main area of the house that is utilized during their stay is the heart and core of the house around the hearth.

The idea of what constitutes as indoor/ outdoor space carries through from the last generation. Communal gathering spaces are closed off from open areas of house, classified as sub-private spaces.

2055

2085 101

In relation to the state of the island: many parts of the island are flooding, and this couple was driven here due to the state of the island’s land being destroyed and the anthropological evidence was at risk of washing away completely.

The third occupant in 2085 is “The Fisherman”. This occupant is much like the first generation of occupation, living as an extension of their interests in the outdoor environment. Sea level rose, so most of the land at this time is underwater. Boats are primary mode of transport. The house is modified to embrace outdoor space, and utilization of the dwelling carries over the program of the Nantucket fishing shack. A gondola system is installed between the dwellings as another system of transport. At this stage of time, the island is adapting to almost exclusive waterfront living--which is the allure of Nantucket for The Fisherman.

To conclude, this dwelling harnesses the different scenarios of the islands state and its possible occupants—the future is very indeterminant and there is a chance that the canals would work until after 2085, but in the case it does not, or if the occupant wants to live on the water, this proposal is a possible scenario.

Eoin Balara | Worker’s House With the Brant Point canals constructed, the surrounding community must work together to maintain the canals and build out the beach. The Workers’ house will be the first dwelling to be pushed toward the beach. The generations to live in this space will be involved with the community and the preservation of the new landscape. Initially, the workers put most of their time into the maintenance of the canals. However, as the dwelling draws closer to the beach, the work of the inhabitants aligns more with the collecting of sand to build out the landscape.

Generation 1: The Volunteers A family involved in the community, volunteering to maintain the canals and adapt to rising water.

Generation 2: The Canal Workers A family who comes to Nantucket to work, makes their living off of the canals and working to move homes in response to water.

Generation 3: The Dune Dwellers A family occupying the home which now sits on the beach. They make their living manipulating sand to build the beach out and extend the land.

Dwelling Section 102

Movement Section

Ground Floor Plan

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Upper Floor Plan

References

References Illich, Ivan. 1992. In the mirror of the past: lectures and addresses, 1978-1990. New York: M. Boyars.

Bachelard, Gaston. 2017. Poetics of Space. S.l: CNPeReading. http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9787532761913.

Images 1. Janet Echelman, “1.8, installation above London’s Oxford Circus”. Retrieved May 22, 2021 https://www. dezeen.com/2016/01/14/janet-echelman-illuminated-18-installation-london-oxford-circus-lighting-artwork-lumierelondon/ 2. Anuradha Mathur And Dilip Da Cunha, “Working Tides”.

Retrieved on May 22, 2021. https://worldarchitecture.org/ article-links/efgcv/watch-exclusive-keynotes-of-anuradhamathur-and-dilip-da-cunha-at-waf-2019.html 3. Mark Smout and Laura Allen, “Liquid Kingdom”. https:// www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/news/2019/jun/ bartlett-professors-shortlisted-john-ruskin-prize-2019 4. Whitaker, Lyndon, Moore, and Turnbull, Sea Ranch, CA. MLTW, Condominium One, 1965; photograph by Morley Baer, 1966. Retrieved on May 22, 2021. https://www. metropolismag.com/architecture/sea-ranch-exhibitionsfmoma/pic/53324/ 5. Brian Maccay-Lions, “Two Hulls House”. Retrieved May 22, 2021. https://www.archdaily.com/455878/two-hullsmackay-lyons-sweetapple-architects/52a3e3e1e8e44e00 d80000c0-two-hulls-mackay-lyons-sweetapple-architectsphoto 6. Space 10, “Urban Village Project”. Retrieved on May 22, 2021. https://www.urbanvillageproject.com/ 104

Acknowledgements

The UF team would like to thank the Envision Resilience: Nantucket Challenge and the dedicated group of staff and volunteers for putting this Challenge together. Also, special thanks to the amazing speakers who joined us on Wednesday nights. We have enjoyed the oportunity to work alongside the other universities: Yale University, Harvard University, University of Miami and Northeastern University.

Special Thanks to Erika Blandon, Morgan Mulholland, Suzanne Tielemans for helping to pull this book together and especially Avery Dunavant for his tireless efforts.

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