An Architecture of Managed Retreat

[2022 – Present]

This body of research addresses shoreline encroachment and its implications for architecture when building in coastal conditions.

In any coastal environment, shorelands experience risks from both the immediate impacts of storms (such as inundation events and aggressive erosion) as well as from the longer-term effects of rising sea levels and encroaching shorelines. This research investigates how architecture might be designed and built with the assumption that it will one day need to move—whether elevating temporarily, retreating on site, or accommodating relocation to another location entirely.

To respond to these concerns, four case study houses were designed on four different sites—these sites vary in size, soil conditions, and grades, and were selected to investigate a wide range of climatic challenges along the Great Lakes coasts of Michigan. While the house designs are specific, each building system is sufficiently flexible to maintain the unique architectural identity of existing communities by deploying regionally available construction practices.