Starting in the mid-20th century, artists and creatives in the New York City queer community adopted Fire Island Pines as a haven and destination. The affordability and opportunity to create their own community underpinned an environment that cultivated free expression. But over the years, like many other creative enclaves in New York and elsewhere, higher income brackets have infiltrated in search of valuable property and cachet. This has priced out creatives and ultimately jeopardized The Pines’ identity and sense of community, reframing the place as merely a party destination. Popularity and limited housing options exacerbate an inflated rental market, with summer 4-bedroom 4-week rate averages exceeding $19,000. Most visitors to The Pines are white gay men who own a home, know someone who owns a home, or can afford to rent for the season. This has resulted in an insular community that runs against current and past movements in the queer discourse, resulting in a less inclusive destination. Additionally, The Pines suffered severe damages following Hurricane Sandy, with flooding impacting most structures. It continues to face existential threats as a barrier island, with significant public resources directed toward dune restoration and breach prevention. The design increases 12-month unit occupancy, benefitting the community economically and culturally in the off season through creative residencies. In peak season, the program changes to tourist-centered housing - connecting visitors with work of the creatives. Changing programs are enabled by a glulam timber structural system which facilitates adaptability from daily user changes to long-term relocation. To improve housing affordability, the design introduces greater density. Slightly taller structures, without compromising neighboring single-family homes, along with adaptive interior partitions allow for higher occupancy in peak months and space for creatives the remaining 9 months.

The Pines is notably inaccessible for the physically handicapped due to its elevated boardwalk system. To address this, every programmatic element has direct access via ADA compliant circulation and has multiple flat connections to the public boardwalk. Due to the stereotypically white, muscled party culture of The Pines, some members of the LGBTQ+ community may still feel that it is not the place for them. So, the design gives agency and privacy to visitors of all backgrounds. Agency over spatial tectonics through movable interior partitions. Agency over social interaction through operable louver systems on public frontages. And privacy by lifting all entrances 12 feet above boardwalk level. The interior courtyard provides an open, social environment for visitors without needing to engage in the scene. Part of the queer influence on Fire Island has been the adaptation of heteronormative single family homes into queer spaces – this attempts to enable a greater level of adaptability from day one. The Army Corps of Engineers has deployed millions of dollars to elevate the nearly 4,500 at-risk structures on Fire Island, which amount to nearly $1.4 billion in property value. The design addresses the growing flooding threat by elevating all first levels and mechanical systems above the NOAA’s 6ft maximum projected flood level. Additionally, all boardwalk circulation can float on guideposts attached to the building structures. The design also reintroduces native trees and plants to the brownfield site, their roots grounding the sandy soil. Long-term, the structural system, informed by the Open Building movement, can be disassembled and relocated. The well-documented longevity of glulam and minimized member sizes enables much of the system to be packed and moved inland. Overall, the design aims to learn from and reinterpret existing social, environmental, and building strategies to introduce a new approach to building community in Fire Island Pines.

Above The Marsh seeks to solve the disconnect in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, a coastal community that continues to be washed away with rising sea levels and land erosion and a population that is aging and lacking diversity. Our design protects the coast from flooding and erosion with a living shoreline composed of a native marshland ecosystems. In addition, Above The Marsh’s goal is to bring a new tourist that can have an experience through a hostel work exchange along the Intracoastal Waterway that focuses on ecotourism and teaching sustainable traveling habits. With an artificial, but natural protection, the site can provide activities to attract new populations such as agriculture, retail shops, and low impact boating, that would otherwise not be possible on a site bound to be submerged under water within future decades through a series of building, harvesting, and inhabiting from land to sea. Building protection for the community and utilizing local dredged soil and marsh plants to redevelop a marsh ecosystem that has become lost to Sunset Beach. Native species of flora and fauna have become destroyed for housing development and depleted with increased wake activity. The utilization of a living shoreline will bring back these lost ecosystems, and can protect Sunset Beach from complete flooding as sea levels continue to rise. This shoreline will be a complete composition of coastal plants, sediments, and oysters that filter and absorb water, create natural wave barriers, and attract local marine life. Harvesting the site begins following the living shoreline development.

This brings agriculture and aquaculture to the site combining popular economies of inland and coastal North Carolina. These crops are organized based on sunlight and growing properties that rotate through the year, while becoming harvested in offseasons using greenhouses that provide year round produce to the site and Sunset Beach community. Above The Marsh incorporates an aquaculture center to harvest local fish and oyster populations using sustainable methods to avoid overfishing and depleting these ecosystems. Inhabiting the site brings in a population of young travelers that want to give back to the Earth and depleted communities. By providing service jobs on site in various disciplines of agriculture, aquaculture, and restaurant and retail service, travelers can work, while experiencing the North Carolina coast to the fullest. Hostels provide short term stays with immersive views of the developed marsh, while taking advantage of coastal breezes and sunlight to create passive strategies within the units. Above The Marsh creates low impact boating that uses kayaks and paddleboards that create small wakes and low harm on surrounding ecosystems, while completely immersing people within their environments. Each strategy focuses on redeveloping Sunset Beach into a ecotourism hub along the Intracoastal Waterway with protecting and diversifying the depleted community its main goals. Above The Marsh displays how a site can bring populations and activities together that would not be possible until a location is protected as sea levels continue to rise and tourists abuse the places they visit.

Located on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, De’ Gullah Geechee Heritage Compound is a response to the encroachment of ecotourism which threatens the Gullah Geechee. A Nation of people located along the Gullah Geechee Corridor, which stretches from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida and includes the Sea Islands to 30 miles inland, the Gullah Geechee are a people who have origins through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, as well as indigenous roots to the Americas. They were swiftly freed in 1862 with the Union occupation of the Sea Islands, and on St. Helena Island, the Penn School (now the Penn Center) was established to educate the newly freed slaves in trades in order to assimilate them into American Society. Our approach to the threat of ecotourism on St. Helena Island will address a few issues: a lack of homeownership, the negative effects of heir’s property laws, and the island being a food desert. Encroaching tourism and development have led to cultural losses and dilution of the Gullah Geechee in the surrounding Sea Islands and areas (think Hilton Head Island, Edisto Island, Charleston, South Carolina, just to name a few). Our site sits 2,000 feet away from nearby marshland, where the sweetgrass used by the Gullah Geechee to meticulously craft their famous sweetgrass baskets grows abundantly. It also sits directly adjacent to the historic Penn Center, the first school for freed slaves in the United States, established in 1862. It now serves as a cultural center for the Gullah Geechee, having recently celebrated 160 years of existence.

Our site will serve the Gullah Geechee community, and our design is modeled after the traditional settlement style of compounds, which is comprised of a cluster of homes, typically family members, all around a shared garden. Our approach modifies and modernizes this settlement style. Our compound is a live-work environment, where businesses are on the ground floor, residences are on the top floor, and rooftop gardens sit atop each structure. Our businesses include a crafts and essential goods store, a barbershop and beauty salon, a familyowned restaurant, a market, and an advocacy unit to address heirs’ property, which has plagued the Gullah Geechee and African Americans living throughout the rural Southeastern United States. We have residential units for each business, as well as 2 additional units. Lastly, we have implemented a host program, where tourists can come stay with families and become immersed within the culture; also, we have 3 tourist units where tourists can also stay privately. Overall, our intention is to create a space unique to the Gullah Geechee culture, where their customs, traditions and practices can be preserved through their own expressions without the threat of being diluted by threats of ecotourism and development.

The Craft, the Tradition, the Celebration of Culture, aims to solve the disconnect between culture, place, and estranged descendants through an immersive, hands-on learning center that celebrates the trades and traditions through practice. The area spanning from Jacksonville, FL to Wilmington, NC is known as the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor. With the rise in development and tourism along the coast of South Carolina, the ecosystem is on the brink of an environmental disaster. The increase of storms and flooding is detrimental to the environment that was once self-sustained. St. Helena Island is the last South Carolina Sea Island along the corridor where the Gullah still lives and practices. The sea islands and culture are at risk of vanishing completely if traditions are not practiced and passed down to younger generations. Self-identity strengthens character and confidence. When children have a deeply rooted understanding of their heritage, their self-worth is increased. Studies show the most impactful age range for character development is between the 2nd and 8th grades. Trades and traditions from locals are passed onto students attending the 7-day heritage program, in hopes to strengthen cultural identity and self-importance. Situated across from the site is the Penn Center. This historical campus became one of the first schools in the country to provide a formal education to previously enslaved West Africans. Today the center serves as a museum, community center, and historical landmark.

Agriculture, cuisine, build + restore, art + folklore are the four programmatic approaches, each of high value to the culture and resilience to the direct community and environment on St. Helena Island. Re-introducing Carolina gold and a vegetable garden allows for year-round interest to inspire education. Students learn about the process’ of soil preparation, sewing seeds, maintaining, and harvesting crops. Once harvested students create Gullah dishes with the three traditional methods of cooking: grilling, stewing, and wood burning. Other methods of cuisine include preparation and preservation, from deshelling and creating spices, to canning and salt-curing. Outreach donates excess crops and meals to local markets for profit. Students learn traditional construction methods and blacksmithing in the tool shop. In the material shop students learn processes of harvesting, carpentry, and joinery, as well as creation of the vernacular material. Outreach consists of repairing and building structures on the island. Students experience folklore and language through immersive guided tours along the site. Students learn traditional song, dance, and instruments during their stay. Outreaches include festivals where students can sell and celebrate their crafts. Lofts are playfully incorporated in each zone to spark a sense of discovery and immersion. Each zone incorporates unfolding furniture elements that support the learning experiences, as well as indoor-outdoor classroom spaces that fully immerse the student in place.

The cost of living in Key West has gotten out of control. Bahama Village is known as one of the poorest neighborhoods in Key West, however properties are listed for over 2 million dollars. These properties are being purchased as second homes for wealthy people. This pattern of purchasing vacation homes is forcing locals, most who have lived there for their entire lives, to either move out of the Keys or commute a very long distance for their job in the service industry. Majority of the locals in Bahama Village have service industry jobs and make less than $38 thousand per year which makes it impossible for them to continue living in the place they call home. Though the economic growth of tourism is funding the lives of many locals, the overpopulation of tourists, leading to vacation homeowners and seasonal visitors, is negatively impacting locals in Key West, specifi cally Bahama Village.

To address this problem, we have designed a self-sustaining, affordable housing complex that accommodates the users needs by providing basic needs all within the site. Our site is located within the Bahama Village community in Key West, Florida and our typical users are service industry workers who work in restaurants, retail stores, or cruise ships. The family types we accommodate vary from single individuals, single parents with one or multiple children, or couples.

The program we have included to cater to the users of the project are 3 different unit types depending on family size, childcare, gym, game room, shared kitchen and living areas, outdoor kitchen and living, laundry facilities, cafe, as well as a community center that has gathering space for the Bahama Village community and an area to display crafts and artwork of the local community.

To address the environmental and self-sustaining needs of our project we are including a rooftop garden that grows local vegetables to feed those that live there and a marketplace to sell the surplus to the Bahama Village community. We also areincluding a rainwater collection system for non-potable water, PV panels to help power our site and we plan to place operable windows strategically throughout our facade to eliminate the need for HVAC systems. On top of the windows we will have operableshutters that can be used during a normal day to let air in through with the window open and to be used a storm shutters during severe weather or hurricanes with the windows closed.

By designing self-sustaining and affordable community housing we are reducing the number of locals leaving the area due to infl ux in the cost of living. This project implements passive design strategies such as solar energy, wind, and rainwater collection and has a focus on equitable community and well-being of the occupants. This is shown through creating a sense of belonging and providing a high quality of life for those living in the community. This will limit the pressure put on locals to relocate and increase the number of local service industry workers in Bahama Village by giving them a reliable place to reside regardless of the tourist season

Located in the florida keys as a historically underprivileged community within a bustling tourist destination, thrive exists to change the self-serving lifestyle of tourism. By providing a unique community space that welcomes locals and tourists to participate in self-sustaining food practices, we can aim to mitigate issues like a lack of affordable housing, and inconvenient fresh food options for those who need it most in this area.Although 78% of key west is white, approximately 11 % of key west lives in poverty, and 32% Of those residents are African American. Bahama village sits in a low-income area, colliding with the demands of tourism, a culture where cost of living is unreasonably high. With inflation, rent will only escalate, increasing the urgency for new affordable housing solutions in this area. Additionally the development of tourism in key west has constrained bahama village and resulted in a food desert. The closet two grocery stores stocking fresh food range from 0.8 -1 Mile away from the site making it realistically inaccessible by biking or walking. Food deserts present a problem to the health and wellbeing of those who are living in the area.

A lack of fresh and healthy food choices is known to negatively impact ones health. Research shows that “a key concern for people who live in areas with limited access is that they rely on small grocery or convenience stores that may not carry all the foods needed for a healthy diet ... Many studies find a correlation between limited food access and lower intake of nutritious foods” (ver ploeg, 2009). This project aims to cultivate a culture of self-sustaining food practices and regenerative, selfless tourism. By producing and selling food on site, our project will provide bahama village with the much needed fresh and health food options that are currently inaccessible. With food production weaved throughout the site and in central spaces, thrive offers a place for locals, residents and tourists to interact with the food they eat and with each other. Thrive sets the vision for all who visit to consider how they can help the community around them, and displays the difference that can be made.

Cherrystone RV campground, located in Northampton county Virginia, draws in thousands of visitors each year. The region celebrates its coastal and agricultural resources, holding regular farmers market events, and has a healthy appreciation for local seafood, particularly oysters. However, Cherrystone is disconnected from that community at nearly a ten-minute drive from any town center. The project is an environmentally-conscious craft brewpub and tourist lodging complex intended to invigorate the existing community, integrate a positive tourist atmosphere at a newly corporate camping destination, and immerse visitors into the native coastal marsh ecology of the site. Cherrystone RV campground is a symptom of a larger tourist culture among RV camping destinations which contributes to negative impacts on the environment such as habitat loss and deforestation.

The project anticipates sea level rise on its fl at coastal site, and incorporates a symbiotic water cycle and ecological processes as design strategies in an effort to mitigate and reshape an industry that has historically disregarded its impact on climate change and habitat destruction. The brewpub will utilize local resources in the brewing process, including on-site farming of hops and sourcing from nearby barley fi elds, in an effort to support the local economy and promote agritourism. The goal of the project was to expose this process to users of the site, drawing them in with a unique program and well-performing buildings, with the hope that they leave feeling more educated and connected to the two things this region values most: the coastal marsh and the agricultural community.

Agritourism in Cherrystone, Virginia has been the method in which the town operates for generations. With Recreational Vehicles at its core, this current model of tourism fragments the landscape, fails to protect biodiversity from invasive species, and pollutes the very salt marshes that facilitate the region’s economy of agritourism and farming. In response to these existing issues, Reciprocity proposes a model of tourism where users experience a full embrace of the natural environments on an indigenous level that not only engages users with the wetlands but indulges them in a system of exchange with the land; as tourists care for the land through long-term management, it provides a place for them to live.

The project proposes an insular, self-sustaining model of agricultural tourism revolving around the cultivation, harvest and processing of cattail and the use of cattail goods to build tourist cabins over time. Located in an existing coastal RV camping community, our project facilitates a healthy exchange between the tourist and the site by involving campers in every system that sustains the built and natural environment’s health. This curated educational and contributive experience has the tourist engaging in research on wetland health and water-treatment, harvesting cattails in each season for the various goods they provide, and pre-fabricating cabins with cattail-based materials that are processed and produced on site. Harvested cattail stems can be stripped, glued together with magnesite and hot pressed to produce Typhaboard, an OSB-like innovative material with comparatively far superior structural, insulative, acoustical and weather-resistant attributes.

The various site systems and productions are monitored, researched, and iterated on yearly, leading to a natural innovation and improvement in cabin design, wetland health, and tourist experience. A board walk weaves throughout the site, integrating each component of the natural cycle. The Wetland Research Center on site addresses the lack of current bay research on the aff ects of human interactions on the health and wellness of the bay and wetlands. This center not only investigates bay health but seeks to restore the coastal wetland adjacent to the site. Campers enter into the site through The Ecology Center, and are able to retrieve all supplies for harvesting and site immersion. The tidal canal hosts a wetland that is home to several phytoremediators such as cattail that are restoring the salt marshes along the coast of the Chesapeake Bay. To limit the amount of fragmentation in the environment, the cabins are constructed in an area near the back of the site called the Production Pavilions. Here, harvested cattail is processed into Typhaboard SIPs which are used in the construction of the cabins. Excess Typha-material is used for crafts and other activities in the ecology center as well as recycled into compostable material, and the rhizomes are taken to the research center to be stored for replanting in the spring. Whereas the site had previously been fragmented by gravel roads for RV camping, now elevated prefabricated cabins allow for the natural ecology to flourish uninterrupted throughout the site.

Our site is an RV campground in Cherrystone, Virginia, directly on the Chesapeake Bay. Our project, named Intertwining, is primarily constructed above the RVs on the site. With thirty-four cabins, five communal kitchens and one greenhouse, our site has a combined total square footage of 19,740 square feet. The site floods frequently2 and, due to sea level rise, could be submerged within 80 years1. This poses a great threat to the site’s longevity. Our goal is to preserve the site’s existing use, while also creating a new system that allows the site to be used when the site is submerged in water. Therefore, the elevated cabins are connected to the communal kitchens via a tree walk which will allow for navigation of the site even while it is flooded. The communal kitchens, greenhouse, and five ground level cabins all have an amphibious structure. This allows the structures to float with any water that enters the site. There are also seventeen RV lots that will have an amphibious foundation to allow the RVs to rise if there was a sudden flood. These platforms could be used for tents as the sea level rises and eventually have cabins constructed on them and then connected back to the tree walk. The greenhouse and oyster farm on the site aim to incorporate the surrounding community and its strengths.

The greenhouse and oyster farm will provide food for the users who will work with local farmers and the nearby aquafarm to produce and harvest the food. Each cabin and communal kitchen have large openings to allow for natural ventilation, as well as encouraging users to open the indoor spaces to the outdoors. The southern facing roofs are covered with photovoltaic panels, and the northern facing roofs are treated with a tray system green roof to slow stormwater runoff. The green roofs also help to maintain the buildings’ temperature. Each building also has a hydronic floor system that is heated by geothermal heat pumps. As the water level rises, the site’s accessibility and uses will change with it. The tree walk would function not only to navigate the site, but also as the main structure that all activities would stem from. Users would use the tree walk as a dock for their boats, kayaks, and any other modes of water transportation. It would serve as the main place to produce oysters and each cabin could have its own small oyster farm. The activities on the site would be more water related and the water harvested from the roofs would become more important to produce food. Intertwining adapts the current Cherrystone RV campground by creating a new system elevated above the old one. This is respectful to the site and its current users while also allowing the lifespan of the site to be extended.