Resilience as Conservation

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Resilience as Conservation

Submitted to the Department of Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, April 2021

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title: Resilience as Conservation

creator: David Bohrer

subject: Sea level; Architecture, Conservation and restoration; Flood damage prevention; Historic sites, Rhode Island, Newport; Coastal engineering, Rhode Island, Newport, Designs and plans

description: The values that define our threatened coastal historic sites engage architecture to find new means of resilient conservation designed to withstand the oncoming threats of sea level rise. A historic site’s values are derived from the role it plays in our communities, whether through the commemoration of an important event, a specific use, or simply a connection to a bygone era. These values are typically embodied by one or more elements of a site, which can determine both what needs to be protected and what we are willing to lose. This can then be tested against different strategies of resilient adaptation to find the most appropriate way to modify and protect the historic site. This study examined two different sites, one sparsely settled on public land, the second densely settled and largely privately owned. Both sites are low lying and face their own challenges due to flooding from storms, and, in the long term, flooding from rising sea levels. It was found through these studies that while adaptations that preserve specific values are certainly possible, it is difficult to design any scheme that will protect a site in the long term without either fundamentally changing the character of the site or constantly re-adapting as sea levels rise even further. Instead, the strategy of managed retreat offers a more sustainable solution, eliminating the need for constant re-adaptation. However, this creates the additional challenge of finding ways to preserve the memory of a historic site or structure that has either been lost or moved to higher ground, redefining the very idea of what preservation means in the age of sea level rise.

publisher: The Douglas D. Schumann Library and Learning Commons, Wentworth Institute of Technology

contributor:

date: 2021

type: Thesis

format: .pdf

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source:

language: eng

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rights: https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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