Floodgate
Collaboration with Austen Goodman and Philip Singer
Brief
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has proven that the ocean will gradually get warmer, steadily increasing the rate of evaporation and amount of rain fall per year. With rising sea levels, one of the main causes of hurricane damage in eastern USA is from resultant storm surge.
Strom surge is caused by the rise of sea level due to low pressure, high winds and waves. When these waves make landfall, these result as massive floods, costing a significant loss of life and damage.
These net positive structures, aptly named Floodgate, use adaptive response mechanics, harnessing tidal energy to create an impenetrable wall barrier during hurricanes. The low profile of the walls affects only detrimental hurricane waves and allow existing ocean ecology to move uninhibited in the depths below.
Building Type: Net positive structures that use tidal power to create a barrier during hurricanes
Material: The shell is comprised of prefabricated sections of ABS steel. With a structure of reinforced carbon fiber, with shock absorbent vertebrae that can bend and flex - responding to the demands of the ocean.
In 2012, a combination of Sea level rising, and storm surge put the 911 monument underwater – exhibiting the raw power of global warming. In 2017, one quarter of Florida was underwater due to storm surge and ocean levels rising. The tremendous amount of causalities and damage to property inspired the implementation of these Storm surge barriers of net positive structures that use tidal power to create a barrier during hurricanes.