DESIGN FOR HYDROCITIZENS: ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSES TO THE DEFEND-RETREAT-ATTACK SCENARIO

Over two thirds of the world’s mega-cities are coastal and delta cities such as New York, Rotterdam and London are all faced with increasing flood risk due to a changing climate leading to more intense rainfall events, sea level rise, soil erosion and storm surge[2]. Of all worldwide disasters, 90% are water related and it is through water that most of the impact of climate change is felt. Northern hemisphere cities and populated coastal areas are now experiencing flooding as the global South continues to do, suggesting that there is scope for international knowledge exchange in this field, including Mediterranean southern European and northern coastal and estuary cities. North-South collaboration is now a feature of European coastal and flood risk projects such as SECOA (www.projectsecoa.eu) with partners in India, Israel, Italy, Vietnam, Portugal, Belgium, the UK and Sweden [2], whilst Dutch water and land use engineering leads the world in terms of flood adaptation and architectural design. It is no accident therefore that Dutch influence in the UK is evident in inspiring creative water architecture solutions by UK design firms, as outlined below. This is important, since tidal/estuary cities like London and southern coastal cities are also the subject of further urbanisation and population growth through high density development and intensification of land uses, with waterfront development now seen as a solution to housing demand, as well as an attractive investment proposition for commercial and leisure developments. Over 1.4 million people currently live in flood plain in London, and 200,000 new homes planned in the extended Thames Gateway region are in high flood risk zones. Urban design and architectural strategies to create floodresilient urban waterfronts are therefore being promoted to incorporate flood mitigation measures in the design of outdoor areas and new buildings.
This article reviews a selection of these architectural responses to the ‘Defend-Retreat- Attack’ scenarios through land-water/humannature inter-action. This research draws on the recently completed SECOA project for which the author led the UK team, and a new art and designled research project: Hydrocitizenship (www.hydrocitizenship.com), based in the Lea Valley region – the river Lea is London’s ‘second river’ traversing a 26 mile corridor of canals, rivers, and reservoirs. This brownfield area has been the prime regeneration zone planned to accommodate London’s 10+% population growth, to extend the city and create new destinations in a major place-making masterplan originating in the 1980s London Docklands. This has been renewed through the London 2012 Olympics built alongside the Lea River and tributaries, including a new Olympic Park and several waterfront urban neighbourhoods [3].