Space Ark City: Design for rapid sea level rise adaptation
Students: Walter Segovia and Ashley Hodde
Instructor: Hope Hui Rising
As the current Solar Cycle 25 unfolds, more frequent and extreme solar storms are likely to increase the amount of solar radiation on Earth to create more space-like adverse living conditions. The increasing solar radiation can cause rapid sea level rise from large-scale ice-melting events to displace approximately 6.5, 15, and 53 million of climate refugees in the United States in 2024, 2050, and 2100 respectively. Space Ark City is a relocation destination prototype composed of three floating villages for accommodating up to a total of 50,000 refugees. During three participatory design sessions for stakeholders recruited by the Climate Adaptation Sciences Centers, the prototype was co developed and sited for Heron Lake in New Mexico as a pilot Civilian Climate Corps location.
As the nearby river water level increases with rapid sea level rise, each floating village can be deployed to help rescue refugees from rapidly inundated areas downstream. Each village is composed of four mixed-use tri-tower communities. Each community has one office tower, one residential tower, and one educational tower to support family life, job training, rehabilitation, and employment opportunities. The floating Space Ark City also serves as a proving ground for optimizing planetary space habitats. Inhabitants will learn how to design, construct, and operate all components of a closed loop life-support system. The system maximizes self-sufficiency in water, food, energy, and biomass by minimizing external input of resources and the output of waste and wastewater from the system. In addition, blue, green, and human infrastructure are carefully sited and designed as building blocks of a self-regulating microclimate within a radiation-proof enclosure. The enclosure is made of Kevlar, a heat-resistant, lightweight, and radiation-proof material. Spaceports are integrated into the outer edges of towers to facilitate interplanetary travels and migration between floating villages.
Project Statement:
Space Ark City is a pilot Civilian Climate Corps residential campus project for Heron Lake in New Mexico for providing mobile self-sufficiency and job training to an increasing number of climate refugees that will be displaced. It is an adaptive urban design strategy that can be deployed for widespread applications to facilitate emergency evacuation and proactive relocation from the impact zones of rapid sea level rise caused by the more frequent and extreme solar storms that will increase the amount of solar radiation entering the Earth. This pilot project activates a growing network of mobile self-sufficient communities as Civilian Climate Corps that will share the ocean and the Space, two of the Commons that belong to no one, in a way that is socially equitable, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable. This responsible use of the Commons for the benefits of the humanity as a whole is accomplished through synergizing modular landscapes with decentralized infrastructure as building blocks of beautiful public and private realms within a closed-loop life-support system for the increasingly more space-like conditions on Earth and the increasingly more accessible outer space
Award/Category: Texas ASLA Merit Award – Urban Design
Award Jury Comments:
Congratulations on winning a Merit Award for the Space Ark City: Design for Rapid Sea Level Rise Adaptation project submission!
One judge commented, “The design is very forward-thinking and provokes some deep thought into the urban design of the not-so-far future. It’s inspiring to see some ideas that are pushing the boundaries to conventional urban design and envisioning solutions for the inevitable (sea level rise). The applicant(s) graphics are clear to read and decipher.”