Jeff Carney, assisted by Carla Brisotto, participated with 16 students of the School of Architecture in The Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge organized by ReMain Nantucket. The Challenge, by way of a spring 2021 design studio, called on interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Florida, Yale University, Harvard University, Northeastern University, and the University of Miami. The challenge sought to inspire coastal communities around the globe to envision innovative adaptations to sea level rise—beginning with Nantucket (MA).
Carney’s studio centered on the dynamics of change and how built environments engage the natural environment over time. The project was also the opportunity to position architecture in a process that is often seen through the eyes of landscape architects, engineers, and city planners. What does the architect bring to this process?
Students worked as part of a team of 4 and individually, to design 4 small communities with 4 individual dwellings each. Each unit and complex will engage specifically with contextual and programmatic needs of the particular site and include an additional program that reflects this particularity (i.e. boat storage, office/commercial space, rental housing).
Each team worked on a transect of land perpendicular to the water’s edge and extending uphill. Each site concept developed within this transect for a community for 3 generations of occupation (75 years). As a team, each group developed a site plan that integrates the project into the immediate context and proposes
a 3-generation strategy for the site. This adaptation strategy is based on team “agreements” and tested through individual projects.
Individually, students designed the architectural expression within the complex, responding to the programmatic needs of the dwelling. Each student also demonstrated the continuity of dwelling through three generations of occupation.
The students’ work will be exhibited at the Great Harbor Yacht Club in Nantucket on June 2, 2021. The event will virtually live streamed. Register here for the virtual event.