Inge Roecker

Waterfront urban areas are home to a large portion of the global population. From the beginning, individuals have been living on the coast to meet their different needs. Throughout the most recent couple of decades, more individuals and infrastructure has moved to the coast than at any other time. Since reforming and globalization occurred, the internal reasons for quick urbanization caused the rebuilding of the Coastal city space. As the city develops, it reclaims part of its landmass for building infrastructure. This extension has altered the utilization of land and, in most cases, productive agricultural farmland around these urban areas has declined, which used to work as the food supply chain for metropolitan occupants before. Coastal land pressures due to population growth forced humans to come up with new innovative ideas to deal with this problem. The demand for developable land around the coastal cities is increasing and with that, the necessity for innovative solutions. The cumulation of these pressures gave birth to the idea of expanding urban access to nearby marine space. The use of a floating house or an amphibious house can now be seen in various cities across the planet. These houses are attached to the shoreline and can easily adapt to the sea-level change. Although this idea is not entirely new, for some reason a floating city has not yet been successful. Various designs have been presented at different times but so far, no design has succeeded. However, shifting development towards water isn't a simple task. It needs to overcome some challenges. This paper focuses on exploring the challenges that a “Floating city” would face and proposes, why a “Floating City” has not yet been build?

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Severe wildfire season occurred in 2017, and 2018 set new records in British Columbia, impacting the health of the communities through immediate fire and smoke exposure. This trend is predicted to occur more frequently in the future due to climate change patterns such as rising temperatures and decreased precipitation. These wildfires are uncontrolled fires from the forests in B.C. that emit smoke, which travels distances impacting not just rural but also the urban areas in B.C. The wildfire smoke consists of gases and fine particles that impact human health and their daily lifestyles. For this reason, providing a safe physical environment by establishing community clean air shelters (CCASs) during wildfire smoke events for the communities was considered a critical public health priority in various jurisdictions across Canada.These CCAS can be established in any existing community facilities such as community centres, libraries, schools and sports complexes. Since community centres are places that encourage community engagement and provide social support for community development and wellbeing, it is crucial to test the potential of community centres to serve as CCAS during the wildfire smoke event. Therefore, this research aims to understand the emerging needs of communities in Vancouver during wildfire smoke events, analyze the existing conditions of community centres relative to their ability to respond as CCAS, identify the interior spatial requirements of CCAS and deliver design guidelines for existing community centres in Vancouver to function as CCAS during wildfire smoke events.The research methodology includes a literature review, a comparative case study analysis of four community centres through interviews, site visits and floor plan review, data analysis, and finally, design guidelines proposal and recommendations. The outcome of the analysis distinctly highlights the need for minor or major upgrades, which need to be considered in existing community centres to function as CCAS during wildfire smoke events depending on the building’s physical and spatial condition, and project funding. This research underlines the importance of understanding the needs of the community during extreme weather events, planning for renewal of existing infrastructure and designing for building transformation based on the changing needs of the communities.

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Elasti-city is an urban model generated with the purpose of satisfying current and future needs. Potentiating the dynamic properties of urban environments can transform them into adaptable ones. Understanding the city as an ever-changing environment allows architects and urban designers to read in urban complexity other than its current problematic. Buildings, and by extension cities, that are adaptable can provide solutions to multiple issues, generate vibrant urban life and permit people to mold and transform their surrounding environment.

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