Research video
Resilient territory

A line, People, And Oysters is the first popular science video produced by the Research Platform of ANMA Architectes Urbanistes. For the occasion, we are inviting the agencies SITELAB Urban Studio and Scape Studiobased in San Francisco and New York respectively, to discuss our shared experience of resilient territorial planning in the face of marine submersion risks.

According to the latest IPCC report, at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions and the implementation of our adaptation strategies, the damage caused by coastal flooding could reach will increase 10-fold by the end of the 21st century and rising sea levels will represent a significant existential threat for coastal cities, particularly after 2100.

However, these projects, which embody new visions of a water-resilient territory, still face a number of pitfalls: fragmented governance and territorial policies, complex transmission of methodologies, limiting land pressures, varying cultural attitudes to risk…

Dialogue
from shore to shore

The aim of this discussion is to shed light on the practices at work on both sides of the Atlantic, with regard to projects in which the three agencies involved are confronted with similar issues.

With projects in Saint-Nazaire (ANMA), San Francisco Bay (SITELAB) and New York (Scape), this video, which takes care not to fix or categorize dogmatic positions, will invite reflection and open up the field of possible urban methods in the light of a dialogue between French and American practices.

This initiative sheds light on the richness of the solutions and their attachment to local characteristics. This exchange is also a moment of convergence, where the identification of common issues enables them to strengthen their strategies with regard to the players and the territories.

understanding
triptych

A line: The degree of risk allows us to identify a line that admits different levels of response to climatic phenomena. This line stretches along the coast and crosses sites identified by towns to generate urban development: urban planners are being asked for a solution. By zooming out, looking at the story and gradually unravelling the reason why the risk is there now, we try to move from an abstract line to a thick strip of cohabitation.

People The challenge is to educate people about the extent of the risk, to create a collective awareness and to engage the responsibility of each player, notably through financing. Defining the cost of inaction in the United States is one of the ways we can generate support for one of the project’s alternatives.

Oysters: The development project must go beyond simple risk protection: a narrative strategy is put in place, beneficial to a commitment to a collective future. This includes the construction of narratives that use concrete elements from territories well known to its inhabitants, such as oyster cultivation in Hudson Bay in the USA.

CREDITS
& team

An initiative of the Plateforme de recherche of ANMA Architectes Urbanistes in collaboration with Scape Studio and SITELAB.

Speakers :
Mélusine Hucault, associate architect, ANMA
Arthur Pérez, associate, SITELAB
Nans Voron, design director, Scape

Directed and produced by :
Marie van Merris, ANMA

Acknowledgements :
Anne-Laure d’Artemare, Lena Cissé, Pierre Bouilhol, Agrippa Leenhardt, Ambre Murgia, Cyril Trétout, Emil Walbron, Laura Crescimano, Guneet Anand, Benjamin Grant

Image credits ©
ANMA Architectes Urbanistes, COWI, Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port – Franck Badaire, OpenStreetMap, Pierre Bouilhol, Port of San Francisco, Scape Studio, SeArc, SITELAB