FAR ROC Competition: Far Rockaway

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

Designing an oceanfront development in an area at high risk of flooding is a challenge that combines two different factors: resiliency against natural disasters and the impact of climate change, as well as the pleasure and enjoyment of a seaside life.
Data reveals that sea levels could rise at a faster rate than forecasted just four years ago; potentially rising by more than 2.5 feet by the 2050s. By that same decade, there could be three times as many days at or above 90 degrees, leading to heat waves that threaten public health and the power system, among other infrastructure systems.
For these reasons the City of New York and the community of the Rockaway peninsula have planned to rebuild this vulnerable area of the Rockaway coastline recently damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, with a particular attention to safety, resiliency and sustainability.
The Seeding Office’s design proposal, in partnership with Biber Architects, Arup, Robert Silman Associates and YR&G identifies a new resilient and sustainable plan that looks at future scenarios without compromising the existing local identity and strong community’s affection to their coast.
Seeding Office is focused on exploring; studying, investigating and discussing everything that concerns the way people live in their built environment. Our projects are guided by a strong sense of contextualization that examines each situation within its own environmental and cultural definition.
As architects and designers we want to increase awareness of, and sensitivity to, the use of what we call the formal language of shapes and spaces featured prominently in our designs.
Shapes and forms convey specific meanings that become part of our subconscious understanding of the visual world. Our proposal is driven by a concept that combines all the planning constrains with a use of shapes and design of spaces that present and future generations of Rockaway residents can feel comfortable with and adopt as their own.
We are not aiming to create an “instant” neighborhood or a “brand new” neighborhood. On the contrary, our strategy is driven by the desire to create an “indeterminate” design; one that will be shaped by time and engagement of the community with the space. These are not rigid schemes that will predetermine only a selected range of possibilities, but designs that a community can naturally evolve with over time.
The design of the overarching iconic boardwalk guarantees residents and visitors the freedom of moving, crossing over, cycling, walking, standing, meeting, resting at any point, but above all the opportunity to seize the spaces underneath and create a socio-cultural-economical productive urban element.
The boardwalk is the glue connecting all the urban and natural elements together: the site to the mass transports hub; the urban form to the beachside; the sport and recreational activities to the residential areas; the commercial and leisure spaces to the existing urban texture.
But the Boardwalk is also a functional element; it defines the dune ecosystem natural nourishment, protects the urban area from possible storm surge, produces clean energy with its wind mills powering street lights and night low consumes lighting features, allowing flexible distribution of services and creating an elegant access way to the residential areas.
The language of shapes and spaces embodied in the boardwalk design are a clear example of one of our most important objectives: design elements that can enhance encounters, provoke real affection to a place and create memories in residents and visitors.
Furthermore, resiliency against floods can reveal real opportunities for additional sustainable solutions. Resiliency in an urban context can enable urban systems to withstand disruption and destruction, but we have widened the concept into planning an urban fabric that can support a local economy, create employment for present and future generations and increase awareness of this rich ecological region and its surroundings. Well-designed communities can be the key to solutions for managing the twenty-first century’s sustainability crisis.