Eroding Boundaries

In the United Kingdom, “about 1,062,000 flats and houses, 82,000 businesses, 2.5 million people and 2m acres of agricultural land, worth about £120bn in all,”[i] are at risk from flooding and erosion brought on by global sea level rise. Some of them will be saved, and some will simply drop to the sea." The wave actions of increasingly violent seas have washed away and over natural barriers which hold off erosion.

A systematic approach to this situation provides structure for existing elements while also allowing for the coastline to recede at a more controlled rate. This controlled rate provides more planning to occur which will move people away from unstable conditions. It is important that the architectural system not try to entirely control the natural system but somehow use its energy to provide a service other than erosion, rather than simply putting up a sea-wall, why not implement a power generator run off the wave action which redirects the force of the surge, or extensions of the land which act as levees in the desert. The mass erosion spans an entire country’s edge and so the apparent simplicity of the conflict is both what makes it solvable yet difficult, beautiful yet tragic. Examples or ideas for diverting of oceanic force might be found in Venice, Belgium and the Netherlands. The second picture suggests that erosion isn't the only problem if sea rise continues and so the intervention must consider its position in a long term phased interaction with the sea.

[i] <http://pruned.blogspot.com/2006/10/climate-ghettos.html>
























1 http://pruned.blogspot.com/2006/10/climate-ghettos.html
2 http://pruned.blogspot.com/2007/09/retreating-village.html