Can we protect Lower Manhattan against the effect of Climate Change, such as sea level rise, and improve the biodiversity of Hudson River?

The strategy is focused on the research about the effect of climate change in New York City.  The proposal envisions an archipelago of cluster islands as an infrastructure that becomes a barrier to protect Lower Manhattan, which is the area at risk because of the sea level rise.

On the macro-scale, the proposal develops the piece of the strategy located between Battery Park and Governors Island. On the micro-scale, the proposal also creates a new cultural program for New York City that is the extension of Battery Park and New York Harbor School on the water. 

The archipelago is a self-sufficient park system in which the cluster islands are built with landfill from the waste plant of “Convanta Energy” in New Jersey connected with an inflatable dam. This inflatable dam is a flexible infrastructure under the water that is inflated when is needed in order to create the flooding barrier and a walkway connecting Manhattan and Governors Island. 

The extension on Battery Park and New York Harbor School is developed by a topographic system of different recycled edges that, depending on the program, creates biodiversity and different ecosystems underwater. This topographic system provides different experiences over the daily time depending on the tidal force, from independent to a network of islands.

• This Project was selected for archiving and published in the book ABSTRACT 2012/2013, Annual GSAPP Columbia Publication 
• EXHIBITED in Dredge Fest at Studio X-New York 2012.