Probing the tides: exploring the narratives of a shifting coastline

Abstract

For centuries, the San Francisco Bay has projected a static image of its coastline as defined by human-made elements and structures. And yet, water is not static – it is fluid and intangible. This practicum looks to devise a humanistic spatial strategy for achieving physical and emotional resiliency against the inevitable – the rising tides in the Bay Area – by challenging the concept of a static coastline. Humans have tried to keep water out of the land by creating barriers, such as levees and seawalls, that inhibit our connection with the water. In the process, we have destroyed habitats, livelihoods, and identities. The practicum aims to create a “climate chronograph” that allows people to return to the water by embracing the return of the water. Its ultimate goal is to help people develop emotional resiliency in the face of an inevitable catastrophe by imagining a future of an organized retreat from the edge of the water where a seamless access to reach the Bay is possible, and where narratives of a shifting coastline are revealed in the process.