Resources

This paper analyzes the effect of disasters on affordable housing construction. Exploiting the exogenous timing of disasters and 26 years of affordable housing data, we derive causal estimates of the effect of severe floods on county-level Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) allocations nationwide.

This project outlines a cultural approach to humanitarian intervention. The project deploys participatory design and up-cycled textiles for the creation of modular tapestries. Inspired by cultural traditions of the MENA region, the tapestries can insulate refugee shelters, preserve cultural memory, and inspire hope. They can also be utilized for mobile storage, or to set up tents for social gatherings. The project introduces a culturally sensitive, socially inclusive, and environmentally conscious framework to humanitarian design.

This chapter details an experimental method for delineating climate action zones (CAZs) based on clusters of unique environmental profiles. Using CAZs as the foundation for adaptation, architects, planners, policymakers, and communities can collaborate to make decisions around environmental risks and uncertainty across multiple scales.

This research argues that metropolitan ‘resilience districts’ offer the appropriate decision-making unit (DMU) to analyze, plan and implement resilience strategies. The working concept of ‘resilience districts’ for urban areas vulnerable to coastal flooding was first coined by a design team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spurred by a case study on the New Jersey Meadowlands from the ‘Rebuild By Design’ (RBD) competition. Cities have since begun using this term for their own resilience policies, failing to recognize the original intentions of its meaning.

Tens of millions of Americans are at risk from sea level rise, increased tidal flooding, and intensifying storms. The design and policy decisions that have shaped coastal areas are in desperate need of updates to help communities better adapt to a changing climate. A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation identifies a bold new research and policy agenda and provides implementable options for coastal communities.