Dealing with SLR problems in Marin City and Martines

In the Marin City project, I begin to think about design from the angle of creating sympathy for low-income and providing habitat for animals. When dealing with the seal level rise problems there, my strategies were mainly about the transportation infrastructures, open spaces, water quality and biodiversity. What impressed me most is that we can not over-design on the site, in case attracting too much other people instead of communities of low-income. Also, concept of resilient design in this project is more about providing variety habitat to our animal in different water levels.

Design thinking change from “Design for people only” to “Coexisting with everything”

The current district- Martines is also faced with the problems of rising sea level(See figure 1). Coastal areas will be inundated by water by 2060. So, the resilient design strategies related to water level can be used here. For example, the floating houses powered by solar energy help the communities get affordable housing and adapt to flooding conditions. Therefore, the refineries in areas that will be inundated can be replaced by floating houses. With the high cost of the floating houses, the floating houses here can be constructed by the government and rented by people, with the high cost of these buildings.

Figure 1:SLR &Storm surge flooding in Martines. (Source: from lecture of John Radke)

There are some differences also. The most challenging conditions Martines are facing is how to deal with the large amounts of refineries(See figure 2). I’m trying to use the site in a way that it can produce renewable energy like solar energy and wind energy.

As for how to use the generated data, I provide two ways: isolated smart grids and interconnected smart grids. In 2017, US based data centers alone used up more than 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Therefore, the isolated smart grids includes solar farms, data archive companies and floating houses. Then the extra energy can be supplied to the power grids.

Figure 2:Refineries in Martines. (Source: from lecture of John Radke)

The marshlands and lagoon in Martines are also in danger of SLR and will be protected for animals. In addition, Martinez family preserves sheepherding tradition but the sheep ranchers say they face uncertain future because of decreasing grazing area in surrounding mountains. So, some part of the solar farms can also be used for sheeping goats and recreation.