Cambridge, MA
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Entangled Futures



Entangled Futures, group show with Forest for the Trees Collective, Climate Imaginarium, Governor's Island, New York City, 2024
First and Last Building Bisected by the FEMA Floodplain: US Route 1 Florida to Maine is a linework drawing of the first and last buildings in every state along US Route 1, the easternmost interstate in the United States, that are bisected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Floodplain. The FEMA floodplain represents places that have historically flooded due to storm surge or inland flooding, which are therefore likely to flood again. Critically, because FEMA maps historic flood boundaries, the extents of the floodplain should be considered a conservative estimate of flooding that does not represent real future flood risk that is exacerbated by climate change. Each building is drawn consistently to scale to compare the variety of architecture at risk due to increasingly erratic precipitation patterns and coastal storm surge across the eastern seaboard.

The drawing is organized in two parts: the “frame” and the “body.” The buildings around the “frame” of the drawing are arranged from the north of Maine to the south of Florida. The part of each building in the FEMA floodplain is drawn in black, while the part of each building out of the floodplain is drawn in architectural detail. 

The “body” of the drawing is a “megabuilding” in which the unflooded remains of each building are arranged into an exquisite corpse that serves as a graphic representation of retreat efforts to higher ground. The drawing serves to raise awareness about the wide range of homes and businesses that are increasingly at risk of flooding, while speculating on a wild new form of urbanism that might emerge if we act proactively to retreat from the floodplain.