As Miami has experienced flooding at unprecedented levels of intensity and frequency,
developers have seized this opportunity to buy and transform low-density housing blocks into
high-density, luxury high rises.
Historically, masterplans have a reputation for cultural erasure and mass building demolition or
environmental destruction. Similarly, the numerous high-rise projects in Edgewater are
participating in this same kind of erasure. In a city where land is highly competitive between
both people and climate change, might there be a new form of urbanism whose organization is
driven by flexibility, environmental responsiveness, and community-shaped design? How can a
model redefine the notion of land ownership in a place where land itself is no longer a
consistent or stable construct?
This proposal explores the possibility of a participatory infrastructure that gives agency to both
individual landowners and neighborhood residents. A system of modular platforms will expand
and develop as a new ground for the city as the current one slips into the ocean, becoming
public land as the high tide level rises, and as former notions of land ownership are inevitably
challenged.
A shared raised boardwalk inserted into the interior of each street block establishes a new
infrastructure and public realm for the city when the existing infrastructure can no longer serve
the inhabitants. This system satisfies the demand for space, repurposes existing structures, and
provides tools for self-organized, flexible living situations
