Extreme Water Levels

Our journey started at the Australian east coast in Perth, teaching at the University of Western Australia. Sophie Giles - thank you for the warm welcome and continuous support! - introduced us to Julian Bolleter (AUDRC) and Charitha Pattiaratchi (UWA), both equipped with equally fascinating and threatening insights about future changes to the sea level in Perth. Julian showed how the sea will gradually take back all the reclaimed land of Perth. Charitha's lecture on exterme weather conditions from the view of an oceonographer was a wake up call for everyone who imagines sea level rise as a venice type of new romantic urban space where we use boats instead of cars to move around. Resist or give way to storm surges? We debated the question with our students. Within a week they knocked up an impressive collection of proposals: The Crawler, a machine like building driven by water levels to move away from the shore. The Tipping Point, an educational pier spatially unfolding to make the water movement and rising of the sea it’s central experience. The Flotile City reacting and adapting to the movement of the Sea. New Seaburbanism: a floating beach which filters the water from debris and algae arising from the rising sea level smouldering the shoreline. And the Life Buoy, fixed to all street lamps and allowing individuals to survive for days during a storm surge. Thank you Amber, Binaca, Frances, Hiren, Marina, Nicolas, Olivia, Rohan, Sam, Siew Leong, Ying Fai!