KPF’s Global Sustainability Director highlighted the firm’s NYCHA Red Hook Houses resiliency project as an example of how cities are strengthening defenses against a changing climate.
In New York City, Carlos told the FT, “There are places where building a barrier or moving people out [during a storm] is not a realistic solution.” In these places, resiliency means creating environments that can protect people when disasters do strike. At NYCHA’s Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, which were devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, KPF developed a design that creates a raised level between buildings and elevates critical mechanical facilities. “The assumption is yes, it’s going to flood again,” he says. “So we’re going to make sure that if people have to stay in place, it’s really safe.”
In addition to flood, cities around the world face increase risks of drought, extreme heat, and fire, notes the report. Extreme heat in particular poses a major threat in already hot and humid parts of the world, where KPF is working to use passive design to mitigate the worst impacts of higher temperatures. Resiliency of all kinds is critical to KPF’s work around the world, and the firm recently joined other leading firms in signing the AIA’s Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Resilience Pledge.
