Date of Award
Spring 6-4-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Jess Myers
Abstract
This thesis is a study of the histories; past, present, and future, concerning scenarios the landscape of Charleston South Carolina might take through the next 200 years. The focus of this visualization is on the sea level rise of the Atlantic ocean and the river deltas that feed into it. Charleston is a city in one of the earliest colonized American cities and thus carries a deep history of prosperity and suffering. A gateway for British colonization in the early colonies, Charleston was also a port for the sale of enslaved peoples. The many generations of people who call this land home have been faced with disastrous realities of sea level rise which will continue to increase in severity as climate change continues to transform the global landscape.
Projecting a coastal city into the future speculates land under water. In response to a 10’ sea level rise how might a coastal peninsula transform? Considering lifestyle and cultural familiarity of the city today, what aspects will carry forward? What parts will become obsolete?
The city has struggled with flooding for the past thirty years. This reality of flooding is the result of changes made to the peninsula landscape over the course of 300 years. Infill to landscape has created a path for settling and sites unfit for infrastructure.
This thesis questions what lifestyle might be like within the context of flooding. Changes made to the landscape in preparation for rising sea levels might provide a glimpse to what the future could hold. Mapping and collage are the modes of process for these thoughts.
Recommended Citation
Barlay, Victoria, "An atlas of speculating flooded futures ; water keeps rising" (2022). Masters Theses. 859.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/859
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