More than 80% of the world’s population lives within a 100km from a shoreline. Coastlines, riverfronts, and estuaries have been attractors of urbanization for centuries and where development pressures continue to be directed today. This is especially true of waterfront post-industrial brownfields as well artificially constructed reclaimed land. Conversely it is exactly where the most vulnerable zones of our urban areas exist. These districts are vulnerable as they are the most susceptible to risks associated with climate change, such as sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, liquefaction, and storm surge.

In dealing with climate change-related urban design matters, notions of “resiliency” and “resilient design and planning” are becoming central pillars of education and practice. Yet this workshop will look at expanding the scope of these ideas through the establishment of “resiliency districts” and “flux codes”. These are terms coined at the MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism in an effort to progress upon the agency of design in the deployment of resiliency strategies.

This intensive pre-semester workshop looked at ideas of "resiliency districting" and "flux codes" in the Oslo fjord context. Three different types of water/coastal urban conditions found in the Oslo region will test novel forms of resilient landscape-based strategies: 1. Developed Fjord Island, 2. River Valley Edge, an 3. Established Waterfront District. The workshop was broken into two parts: Conceptual Modeling and Analysis; and Schematic Design Recommendations. Teams gathered geo-spatial information of these districts 3D modelled their sites. During the first part of the workshop, students learned how to measure and visualize the various coastal forces and vulnerabilities (such as tidal conditions, flooding, storm surge, and sea level rise) onto chosen sites.
 
Teams proposed schematic establishment of a resiliency district for their selected area through: The identification and protection of Critical Infrastructure, Creating a Thick and Redundant soft / hard Infrastructure, Up-zoning High Grounds, and Down-zoning Low Lying Areas through “flux codes”.

Taught by
Alan M. Berger and Fadi Masoud