DUNE CO-HABITAT
Client: FAR ROC Competition Entry
Type: Urban Design/Development
Location: New York City
Size: 80+ acre
Design: 2013
in collaboration with:
SCAPE Landscape Architecture / Sherwood Design Engineers / James Lima Planning + Development
DUNE CO-HABITAT integrates coastal protection strategies with a public & semipublic open space network to create a co-habitat for people and marine life. A series of floodable platforms or undulating and inhabitable secondary dunes are shaped to contain and protect key site infrastructure, parking and utilities. In between these dunes - in the “slack” - are dynamic floodable coastal scrub gardens – designed to absorb overtopping and provide desirable beach views for all residential units. Our iconic Rockaways bungalow typology is resilient in its construction: a new concrete topographic & infrastructural base below is coupled with prefabricated steel modular units above ABFE, where framing and finishes are built within a continuous hard shell.
While physical elements are hardened to withstand weather events, the units themselves are more operable and openable, and integrated into the landscape context. Bungalows cluster to form semi-public shared courtyards, creating smaller scale social spaces and a local neighborhood character, in keeping with the tradition of innovative Queens and Brooklyn housing patterns. Revenue generating program and mid-rise density zones anchor the site’s two subway stops: at Beach 44th Street, the hotel complex is the gateway to the nature preserve and, at Beach 36th Street, a linear promenade,lined with a mix of cultural, retail, and residential units above, culminates in a pier that reaches out to the ocean, concentrating commercial activity and animating the N-S connection between the city and the beach. An E-W spine of recreational and community spaces accept stillwater inundation from Jamaica Bay during major storm events, while serving as a connective spine between Far Rockaway and Arverne neighborhoods.
For more on the FAR ROC Competition, and to see the list of finalists, please visit www.farroc.com/finalists/.