NEW MANNAHATTA 2100

Re-interpreting the Urban Patterns in Manhattan island, NYC

Master thesis (2023)

Authors

M. Lakoumenta Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

B. Hausleitner Urban Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
Luca Iuorio Environmental Technology and Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2023 Maria Lakoumenta
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Published Date

29-06-2023

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

New York City is one of the most densely populated megacities in the world and specifically Manhattan one of the metropolitan areas with a constantly rocketing population growth. The delirious urbanization is mainly the result of mass migration both internal and international thus forming a society of diverse economic and cultural backgrounds. As climate change emerges, Manhattan constitutes one of the areas with great flood vulnerability due to coastal flooding and storm surge. According to IPCC statistics, New York will experience a sea level rise of about one meter by 2100.

The metropolitan area itself is the epicenter of patterns, from the Grid to the skyscraper. External forces such as the impending housing crisis, social segregation and the emergent flood risk will reconfigure the pattern image of the city in the future. The region has been altered extensively during the years by significant drivers which turned the primitive green paradise into an artificial world of skyscrapers. Natural elements of the past have been covered due to the increasing demand of building industry forming a compact environment. The Grid offered the fast and effective organization of the metropolitan area, however it did not take into account in a great extent the natural landscape.

The graduation thesis explores the possibilities of the Grid into the mitigation of Flood vulnerability while bolstering the Social Inclusion in an aim to reconfigure the pattern image of the city in the future through the unraveling of important elements of Palimpsest Landscape. The flood adaptation of the Grid will question the impact on housing densification strategies for the future of the island. The identity as well as the resilience of the metropolitan area will be reinforced and people will come closer to nature.