Occupying the Amphibious Edge: Reframing Managed Retreat to Establish Resilient Coastal Settlement Strategies

Our current methods of inhabiting the Gulf Coast region presume a permanence of land and a predictability of risk. We have sought to maintain our stability-seeking occupation patterns by governing this coastal landscape through structural interventions. This has created a path dependency on hard infrastructure that is unsustainable in the long term, particularly as the oil and gas industry continues to destroy natural surge and inundation buffers. We are unable to secure Louisiana's coastline in its current form, but as the oil and gas industry declines, we may begin to establish new occupation strategies and regenerate coastal ecologies that have the capacity to operate in future conditions of uncertainty.

The proposed project aims to address the challenges posed by flood risks in coastal communities by reframing current occupation patterns in order to reduce risk, minimize displacement, and restore coastal ecosystems. To achieve these goals, the project proposes the establishment of a community land trust to promote collective stewardship of the coastal zone and its infrastructure through conservation-led land acquisition. Land on which housing is removed will be turned into collective space for profit-generating activities, such as food production and energy generation. The project also includes a strategy of partial retreat, where densification is encouraged on “higher ground” within the immediate area to reduce displacement, and the development of a new housing typology called the “meta home” to increase square footage and generate profit for the trust. The coastal edge will be transformed into an ecological buffer to restore coastal habitats.