Adaptable Infrastructure

INFRASTRUCTURE

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen

KEY READINGS 

• Adaptable Architecture: Theory and practice, Schmidt III & Austin, Taylor & Francis

• Design for Climate Change, Gething and Puckett, RIBA

• Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change, Roaf, Routledge

• Designing for the Climate Emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., RIBA

• Adapting Cities to Sea Level Rise: Green and Gray Strategies, Al Stefan, Island Press

• Adaptive Reuse in Architecture: A Typological Index, Wong, Birkhauser

• Think before you build, Kytölä, Sawszuk, Huuhka, in Everything needs to Change: Architecture and the climate emergency. RIBA Design Studio Volume 1, Sofie Pelsmakers, Nick Newman. RIBA

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

• Elemental, Quinta Monroy, Social Housing, Iquique, Chile

• Assemble Studio, Granby Four Streets, Liverpool, UK

• Solrodgard Climate and Environmental Park, Denmark

• Vandkunsten Architects, Lisbjerg Hill Housing, Aarhus, Denmark

ADAPTABLE INFRASTRUCTURE

Adaptability ensures that infrastructures keep meeting an individual’s, community’s and society’s changing needs over time, but also includes adapting to a changing climate. Adaptability ensures longevity: it reduces risk of premature building obsolesce and demolition when they no longer meet our needs (because they can be adapted) – this is part of circular thinking and climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches. Adaptability reduces transient communities and supports stability, diversity and community cohesion, this is also part of creating inclusive and equitable infrastructures and long-term resilience. As such your project should put adaptability at its core, at micro, meso and macro-scale. A key aspect of this is the creation of different scenarios and personas over time (e.g., scenarios of possible functions, changing climate, modes of use, etc.) and reflect this in at least one alternative layout (i.e. design) scenario for your project. Ensure that your project also enables future adaptability at different scales.