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Rebuild by Design projects focus on constructed nature

June 23, 2014 5:00AM ET

The federal design competition to help coastal communities could radically alter our relationship to the water's edge

Topics:
Environment
Infrastructure
Climate Change
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Rebuild by Design
A group led by a team from MIT will reshape the New Jersey Meadowlands, boosting protection of surrounding urban areas with the Meadowband (an embankment made of various materials to suit local conditions) and man-made marshes.
Rebuild by Design
The Meadowband will offer protection against flooding and a connection between towns and wetlands.
Rebuild by Design
The project will expand what remains of the Meadowlands' marsh, river and estuary waterscape.
Rebuild by Design
On the western side of the Hudson River, in Hoboken, New Jersey, a team led by the Rotterdam-based architecture firm OMA plans to keep water out of some areas and accommodate it temporarily in others through the creation of bioswales and an ecological park. OMA’s mantra behind the idea: “Resist, delay, store and discharge.”
Rebuild by Design
A team led by the landscape architecture firm Scape has designed a necklace of “living” breakwaters to protect Tottenville, a neighborhood on the south shore of Staten Island, New York. Working in concert with strengthened beach dunes, the reefs should slow flooding rather than stop it.
Rebuild by Design
In Tottenville a network of programmed water hubs will connect people to the water and encourage water-based activities in the calm water behind the breakwaters.