PLUS 10: DESIGNING A Future of UN-BUILDING

A project completed in Rosetta Elkin’s Studio The Monochrome No-Image in partnership with Ruocan Fu, Melissa Green, and Hannah Van der Eb

Retreat is a process, not an artifact.

The process of retreat has begun for the residents of Captiva. Our project uncovers, examines, and clarifies the material reality of grounding retreat in the lives of residents. We began with the initial phase, a phase that is cultural, yet realized through legal terms. A land-swap scenario is proposed to increase the potential transformation of real estate into real conditions— rather than the false values established by vague notions of beachfront vs bayside property, we evaluate ground as a fluctuating sea level and a stable high ground, 0 plus 10. Using the following appraisal system, we propose a land swap scenario that re-values real estate so that property on one landscape condition is financially more desirable than the other. Here, high-risk beachfront property is less favorable than ownership on higher ground. Florida is now understood through its contours. Contours rather than beachfront.  The land +10 meters above sea level is associated with less vulnerability as long term investment is augmented with every increment of a rising sea. This new understanding of a +10 Florida influences where and how we live. So. We represent a new understanding of land, not through plan or value, but through elevation and trust.

Florida plus ten asks residents across the urbanized coastline:  what are YOU leaving behind? We mean this literally, not figuratively. In other words, we are concerned with material legacy that remains once the residents no longer occupy Captiva. Captiva is a transient community. There are ONLY 140 permanent residents on the island, thus, 140 voters. YET, 4,000 people own second or third homes . A transient and disconnected community. Florida+10 proposes to lead retreat by mobilizing the agency inherent to the 140 resident voters.

We question the costs of owning barrier island property over time. In the current cycle, homeowners buy and sell across an average of 5 years. Is this inflated market in line with the increasingly rapid migration of sand or salination of water? In a chronic climatic condition, every inch of beachfront will make a difference. To understand what this means for property value, we calculated the potential cost for maintaining a habitable island.

This study includes the expense of building sea walls, storm protection infrastructure, preventing saltwater intrusion, and sewage clean up. These expenses will rise and property values will drop.

The land swap process is possible through establishing a partnership with the Florida Forever program, an existing state land acquisition infrastructure. Residents can apply for their property to become a land trust. They can completely sell their land to the state or sell and retain certain property rights through conservation easements. Florida+10 proposes that the residents sell via conservation easements, thus forfeiting individual rights to build while retaining the rights to use the land recreationally and —importantly, retaining the right to vote.

Thus, the residents in retreat will continue to hold decision making power on Captiva.

Such a recommendation also includes suggestions of where to RELOCATE. The highlighted land on the map above represents several state lands that are safely above +10 elevation. Florida+10 proposes participation in a conservation easement land acquisition, where residents can trade their Captiva land for another plot on state-owned land.

We then explore what it means to un-build the island with the materials left behind, to repair and re-imagine Captiva as a novel ecology and a public waterfront once the Captiva residents leave their homes and land. How could the materials of the roads, buildings, pools, docks, be broken down and reused, rather than carted off the island?

Our research on barrier island formation revealed the constant movement and migration of ground through sand making, erosion, and breaching. If the material ground of Captiva is always changing by breaking down and re-aggregating, how can the man-made materials contribute to this process?

The ground of Captiva is largely composed of sand. WHAT IS SAND? Well, sand is not determined by a composition of specific materials but by its particle size. Therefore, any material can be broken down to a grain of sand. With this in mind, we now evaluate materials in a new way.

We produced a chart of some materials used on a typical overbuilt residential site in order to reveal the potential of un-building. The chart above highlights the materials capable of being broken down into sand particles. These materials include: Brick, Ceramic, Limestone, Slate, Glass, Wood, Porcelain, Asphalt, and Concrete. We imagine that these materials are broken down in various sizes and re-aggregated to generate novel compositions and grains of the future ground.

In our process of un-building the island we analyze four conditions that are common to many of the properties on Captiva: a road, house, pool, and dock. We all associate these with Florida. With each condition FLA+10 accepts the typical construction detail and renders it more valuable in a pulverized material form. These drawings expand the imagination by allowing the materials to generate an understanding of a new whole. The asphalt of the road is cracked and stacked to create a dune as the beach erodes away. The glass from the windows of the house are pulverized to make sand to generate a back-dune condition. The concrete from the pool is fractured to create a freshwater ecology. And the wood pilings from the dock become substrate for mollusks to attach on to fostering other species habitats. This material un-building and breakdown enables Captiva to resume its ongoing processes of movement and migration. It also acknowledges and more importantly accepts our role in the process. This is the legacy of the 140 residents.

FLA+10 offers residents a choice to retreat and to be careful about what is left behind.