Mare Island Regional Resilience Resource
Mare Island & Vallejo, CA | 2017
We are part of a global collaboration to help the Bay Area prepare for climate change! In August 2017, Communitecture was chosen to join one of 10 teams in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge, a design competition that brings together local residents, public officials, and local, national and international experts to develop innovative solutions to address sea-level rise and climate resilience in the Bay Area.
Our combined team, P+SET, was made up of people and firms with strong connections to the Bay Area, a passion for community-led design and a commitment to positively impacting people and the planet. Of the 10 teams chosen to participate, we were one of the only teams made up of mostly local firms and activists. Other team members include BASE Landscape, Ross Martin, Landscape and the Urban Permaculture Institute of San Francisco.
Over a period of three months, we worked with P+SET to create three design opportunities: The Language of Water in the Islais Creek Watershed, Regional Resource Park on Mare Island, and Resilience from the Ground Up: A Regional Approach to Building Resilience.
Our designers at Communitecture were most invested in Mare Island as an opportunity to revitalize the economy of Vallejo, while housing a thousand homeless people who would have jobs building resilience technology to support adaptation strategies across the Bay Area. To do this, we propose to repurpose extensive military facilities and lands on Mare Island as a model to support adaptation strategies across the Bay Area. For Vallejo, this proposal provides a cultural program for local economic, ecological, and community resilience. These proposed redevelopment ideas and adaptation strategies for existing infrastructure will merit protection from climate change.
Our combined team, P+SET, was made up of people and firms with strong connections to the Bay Area, a passion for community-led design and a commitment to positively impacting people and the planet. Of the 10 teams chosen to participate, we were one of the only teams made up of mostly local firms and activists. Other team members include BASE Landscape, Ross Martin, Landscape and the Urban Permaculture Institute of San Francisco.
Over a period of three months, we worked with P+SET to create three design opportunities: The Language of Water in the Islais Creek Watershed, Regional Resource Park on Mare Island, and Resilience from the Ground Up: A Regional Approach to Building Resilience.
Our designers at Communitecture were most invested in Mare Island as an opportunity to revitalize the economy of Vallejo, while housing a thousand homeless people who would have jobs building resilience technology to support adaptation strategies across the Bay Area. To do this, we propose to repurpose extensive military facilities and lands on Mare Island as a model to support adaptation strategies across the Bay Area. For Vallejo, this proposal provides a cultural program for local economic, ecological, and community resilience. These proposed redevelopment ideas and adaptation strategies for existing infrastructure will merit protection from climate change.
For protection, we propose a system of compartmentalized perimeter levees where land allows, and seawalls along Napa River docks where space is constrained. For adaptation, western marsh lands should be augmented with silt over time, while wave attenuation and habitat systems are proposed. Traditional native knowledge and technologies can also once again be incorporated in tending the land. There may be no better inspirational rethinking of land once used to marshal and furnish weaponry: a place of memory, celebrating, and sustaining. That’s resilience.
These designs integrate strategic, timely, and urgent needs. They include green jobs, housing, green energy, food infrastructure, and resilient villages for most vulnerable populations. These designs result from site visits, observations, discussions with Heritage Park staff, and review of the numerous existing plans for the island. These include Mare Island Reuse Plan, Specific Plan, Shoreline Heritage Preserve Advisory Board Report, Vallejo General Plan, Vallejo Waterfront Plan Proposal, and Community Health Needs Assessment of Solano County. Our designs build upon them.
Read more about our team and the competition guidelines here: http://www.resilientbayarea.org/permaculture-social-equity/
For more information on our design proposal for Mare Island, click here: http://neighborland.com/resilientbay/mare-island-par
For more information on our design proposal for Mare Island, click here: http://neighborland.com/resilientbay/mare-island-par
