If you’ve read the latest issue of Residential Design magazine, you’ve seen a number of ways architects are dealing with climate change in their recent and future work. Our cover story looks at a Malibu house designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects located hard by the ocean and within a 20-foot storm surge area. A recent article in the New York Times addresses what the Newport Restoration Foundation and others are doing to preserve the Rhode Island town’s irreplaceable historic houses, many of them also vulnerable to rising seas and storm surge.
A number of different strategies are being employed as test cases, including capturing rogue water in basement cisterns, guiding water through and under houses, and re-engineering houses for buoyancy so they can float atop rising waters. Despite the intriguing possibilities of such heroic measures, it’s clear not every significant house can be saved. Certainly tough decisions lie ahead.
Read the full story in the New York Times here.