Porosity Map: Using MIT campus as a living lab for climate-change resilience through citizen science

October 3, 2021

The MIT campus sits on reclaimed land, originally tidal flats. Since reclamation, both the city and the campus have grown at a rapid pace during the past 100 years. With sea-level rise, increased precipitation, and the associated risk of increasing storm surges it is vital to assess the flood vulnerability of the MIT campus. 

Through this project, we developed a chatbot-based tool that can be used on any mobile phone. This tool will allow for data collection for the whole campus through a group effort with students. This exercise will involve MIT students in an important experiment that also increases their awareness of flood issues and their own stewardship on campus.  Working over three days, members of the Porosity hunt catalogued openings in dozens of buildings across campus to better support flood mapping and resiliency planning at MIT

Read more at MIT News

Pre-planning Toolkit Basic Workshop: Chelsea, MA

March 30th and 31st, 2021

As part of the Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit project, Larisa Ovalles and Charlotte Matthai led the first ‘Basic Level’ workshop with the Chelsea Disaster Housing Working Group in partnership with the Boston Office of Emergency Management. The two-day workshop facilitated conversations around long-term resilient planning and disaster housing following the Toolkit framework.

SEED Prototype passes container testing

February 11, 2021

An important part of the SEED unit design is its ability to travel flexibly through the international container intermodal system as a certified container. This gives it the ability to get to tropical islands as quickly as possible following a disaster to meet the housing needs of disaster survivors. In order to ensure it can travel safely as a container, the units needs to undergo extensive full scale structural testing to simulate common loading experienced by containers on trucks, rail cars, or stacked on a container ship.

Working with Container Testing and Certification, Inc. we developed a specialized testing procedure to use with the SEED prototype that also meets the International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC) requirements. Earlier this week the SEED passed all required tests to be certified to CSC standards.

Thanks to Mark Brennan and Sam Markey Productions for the testing process photos.

Two Awards for "Resilient Planning at Multiple Scales: Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico"

November 6th, 2020

Resilient Planning at Multiple Scales Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico received two major awards:

• Design Excellence Honor Award, Vision Category, National Organization of Minority Architects

• Honorable Mention, ACADIA+Autodesk+NOMA COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN AWARD

In partnership with the Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja (Puerto Rico), ResilientSEE, Perkins&Will, NASA Develop (Hampton, VA), Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón Architecture and Interiors (Puerto Rico), WSP (Boston, MA), Moffatt & Nichol (Florida) and SGH (Waltham, MA).

Pre-planning Toolkit Basic Workshop: Boston, MA

October 19th and 21st, 2020

As part of the Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit project, Larisa Ovalles and Charlotte Matthai led the first ‘Basic Level’ workshop with the Boston Disaster Housing Working Group. The two-day workshop facilitated conversations around long-term resilient planning and disaster housing following the Toolkit framework.

SEED Prototype Complete

September 28, 2020

The first prototype of the SEED (Shelter for Emergency and Expansion Design) has been completed at a fabrication facility in Pennsylvania in partnership with AMSS. David Moses made the trip to the factory to do a final punchlist of the unit. Thank you to everyone involved in the prototyping effort. We are excited to move into the testing and evaluation phase of the project.

Pre-planning Toolkit Basic Workshop: Cambridge, MA

July 20th and 22nd, 2020

As part of the Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit project, Larisa Ovalles and Charlotte Matthai led the first ‘Basic Level’ workshop with the Cambridge Disaster Housing Working Group. The two-day workshop facilitated conversations around long-term resilient planning and disaster housing following the Toolkit framework.

SEED Prototype Structure Complete

February 27, 2020

The first SEED prototype currently being fabricated in Pennsylvania in partnership with AMSS. Last week we reached a significant milestone with completion of the fully custom structural frame. The unit’s structure has been designed, engineered, and now fabricated to to meet the structural requirements of containerized shipping, as well as zone II seismic forces and 195MPH winds once deployed for post disaster use. The fold out panels double the inhabitable space available to disaster survivors once the unit arrives at its final destination.

We look forward to the rest of the ongoing fabrication process!

Pre-planning Toolkit 'Intermediate Workshop': Yolo and Sacramento, California

November 22nd, 2019

As part of the Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit project, Lily Bui led the second ‘Intermediate Level’ workshop with the Sacramento & Yolo County Disaster Housing Working Group. The two-day workshop facilitated conversations around long-term resilient planning and disaster housing following the Toolkit framework.

Green-Up: Sustainable Development Conference, Dominican Republic

October 12th, 2019

Larisa Ovalles, presented the Urban Risk Lab’s work at Green Up, an event that focuses on sustainability issues, where the future of our cities and world resources will be discussed, and where the tools used by sustainability leaders that are making this planet a better home for us and will be presented to future generations. Aimed at professionals in marketing, design, architecture, engineering, politics and others interested in the sustainable development of our built environment.

Other presenters included Ginny Heinsen, president of Sostenibilidad 3Rs and activist. Larisa also participated in the panel, “Gender and Sustainability” along with Ginney, Yomayra Martinó from Greenergy and Karina Chéz from Kaya Energy Group.

Pre-planning Toolkit Workshop: Toa Baja, Puerto Rico

November 22nd, 2019

As part of the Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit project, Larisa Ovalles led the second ‘Intermediate Level’ workshop with the Toa Baja Disaster Housing Working Group. We were joined by ResilientSEE-PR’s Yanel de Angel, Tamara Elena Pérez, Jaime Pabón from Moffat & Nichol and presentation by Paul Fericelli (EPA). The two-day workshop facilitated conversations around long-term resilient planning and disaster housing following the Toolkit framework.

Keep Safe Guide

October 8th, 2019

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Keep Safe - A Guide to Resilient Housing Design and Construction is a new manual for safe, resilient housing construction for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Florida Keys developed in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Enterprise Community Partners led a large team, including the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture and Planning, the Puerto Rico Homebuilders Association, Perkins and Will, and the MIT Urban Risk Lab, among others, to develop a comprehensive manual for rebuilding in the Caribbean in the most sustainable, long lasting way in the face of escalating hazards due to climate change. The manual features strategies on resilient energy and water systems for homes; protection of roofing and structural systems; strategies to enable habitability of homes without power; strategies to embolden communities and how to implement strategies outlined through code compliance and funding.

Our contribution, led by Larisa Ovalles with extensive contributions by Jean Carlos Vega Diaz, was the introductory chapter on Puerto Rico’s hazards, risks, and vulnerabilities to disaster. It includes both a survey of disasters on the island stretching back 100 years and a projection of future hazards due to climate change.

The book will be released to the public on October 8, 2019, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Juan, PR.

Collective Spaces of Resilience: Lima Workshop 2019

August, 2019

The workshop will focus on existing public and collective spaces and how they can build resilience within their community. Social, educational, and cultural support networks that are tied to specific spatial typologies help build resilience on a daily basis, but can also be designed to function as important post-disaster anchors for the community. Public spaces meet the needs of everyday community life, but can also double as the main hosts for post-disaster activities. Embedding preparedness into the design of collective spaces to better function for post-disaster needs. 

The workshop will study several typologies of collective spaces including: schools (with their adjacent parks and playgrounds), ‘comedores populares’ (communal kitchens), soccer fields (‘canchas’), park networks, plazas and churches. The workshop will engage with the main actors of these spaces through a series of site visits, meetings and collaborative design charrettes to better understand their complexities, needs and potential. 

FIELD WORK & SITE VISITS 

The field trip worked to understand different modes of appropriation, function and self-management of some collective spaces in northern and southern Lima; and to learn from people how they are prepared for some physical vulnerabilities. 

Beyond a simple view of a “informal development” of these barrios, the public infrastructure of these neighborhoods, most of them planned, have an important role in each community. Those public facilities are schools, cuna-más (kindergarten), soccer fields, community locals, and parks in which neighbors, children, students and families gather. Each space is self-managed mainly by communal endeavors and improved by collective fundraising. 

1. FITECA - Proyecto Fitekantropus / Communal center, library, and shared kitchen.

2. PREVI / Housing projects, park, and school

3. VES - Villa de Jesus School / School, Earthquake preparedness, park

4. VES - Superblock / Shared kitchen, Cuna Más, Communal center (Yellow building), and park

5. VMT - Virgen de Lourdes / School

Collaborators

Urban Risk Lab: Miho Mazereeuw, Larisa Ovalles, Rodrigo Escandon Ceserman, Evellyn Tan

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP): Luis Rodriguez, Eduardo Pelaez

Aula, Eduardo Pelaez

xLAB: Redefining Resilience in Tokyo

July-August, 2019

The 2019 xLAB Summer Program focused on Tokyo’s resilience and consists of studios, seminar lectures, faculty lectures, and a symposium at The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan). With a focus on the city of Tokyo using the 2020 Summer Olympics as an urban event, participants researched themes of resiliency under the leadership of interdisciplinary faculty.

The group studio developed a proposal for the island of Harumi, which will host the athletes of the Olympics 2020. Resilience is not a static status but a process of change, empowering communities to prepare through their everyday activities. 

HaruMIX will focus on small interventions within the ground plan that become a LARGE SYSTEM for CHANGE with dual-use themes of integrating bosai systems within WORK, TOURISM and FITNESS. This is developed through the perspective of three distinct narratives, a single working mother, a group of tourists and an elderly man.

Mental Health X Physical Health

STUDENTS SEBASTIAN ARGUELLO, HIROKI AWAJI, TEN HYAKUTAKE, LUCAS NGIAM, LARISA OVALLES PAULINO, XIAOWAN QIN, ROBERTO RANSOM, ECHO SHI, MUMU TASHIRO, ARCHITECTURAL CONSULTANTS JUNPEI MIWA, SAYAKA HAMAMOTO, HAYATO FUKADA 

FACULTY MIHO MAZEREEUW, KAZ YONEDA, MITSUHIRO KANADA 

Netherlands x Boston Water and Climate Resiliency Events

July 22th, 2019

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Last week a large contingent of Dutch business, design, and government leaders came to Boston for a series of meetings and workshops with Massachusetts based organizations working for a more resilient future in Boston. By sharing ideas and best practices, and looking for ways to develop future collaborations, the goal of the trip was to build stronger connections between the generations of experience in the Netherlands dealing with interconnected water issues, and the increasing need for greater Boston to do the same.

We were fortunate to be able to take part multiple events during the week. It was a great opportunity to share some of our ongoing research and learn from others doing important work, both in the Dutch delegation and our local community.

‘Explore prephub’ at portland state university

June 29th, 2019

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Being developed through a partnership between MIT Urban Risk Lab, Portland General Electric, Portland State University and the City of Portland, PREPHubs are innovative community-driven installations tacking disaster preparedness in the community around them.

On June 29th, Portland State University's Center for Public Interest Design organized an interactive planning session to inform PREPHub’s features and to help shape the way people engage with the PREPHub every day and in the event of a disaster. During this event, David Moses, lab’s project lead for the PREPHub project, interacted with the community partners and introduced the community to the design ideas behind PREPHub. The discussion focused on challenges and opportunities around community programming.

PREPHubs are designed to operate off-grid during and immediately after a disaster, providing vital services that include power, emergency communication equipment, information and emergency supplies provided by the City of Portland’s BEECN program. It will also be a place where people can charge their cell phones with power stored from the electric grid, supplemented with power generated by solar arrays and pedal-power. In non-disaster periods, PREPHubs are expected to function as interactive knowledge sharing nodes about disaster preparation and how people can become involved in preparedness.

Pre-planning Toolkit "Basic" Workshop: Toa Baja, Puerto Rico

June, 2019

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As part of the Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit project, Larisa Ovalles led the first ‘Basic level’ workshop with the Toa Baja Municipality in Puerto Rico. We were joined by ResilientSEE-PR’s Yanel de Angel and Maria Roldón, along with the Toa Baja Disaster Housing Working Group who will be working together to complete the Toolkit process. The workshop facilitated discussions and conversations around long-term resilient planning and disaster housing. The aim was to set common objectives in housing policy, identify local hazards and vulnerabilities, and introduce federal disaster and hazard mitigation assistance programs.

RiskMap Japan - RiskMap platform piloted during Kumamoto emergency drill 2019

April, 2019

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For the annual emergency day drill in Kumamoto, Japan Urban Risk Lab in partnership with messaging app LINE, and the city of Kumamoto piloted a novel approach of using chatbot system to manage evacuation shelters during emergency events. Specially developed for Japanese cities, the Shelter Operation Chat-bot helps shelter managers communicate with the emergency control room directly. Through its guided interface, it collects pertinent data and also updates a map interface to show the latest status of the shelter on the Emergency Management Dashboard. The dashboard is designed to reduce the information overload during a crisis, allowing disaster managers to communicate with shelter operators directly, check the latest vital stats and manage resources.

Additionally, RiskMap platform was used to test the public reporting functions to share flood and road closure information, with over 13,500 people participating in the drill across the city.

PREPhub-Nepal : Completed Paati handed over to Thecho women's cooperative

November, 2018

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Urban Risk Lab - in partnership with Lumanti support group for Shelter, Nepal - completed the pilot project - PREPhub Nepal - A a community-driven design innovation of the traditional building type known as Paati. In the Kathmandu Valley, paati - small, public pavilion - represents a living example of collective management of public infrastructure with centuries-old cultural legacy. In addition to improving their role as a day to day public anchors, this project aims to create a place for people to gather after a disaster, supporting communities in these extreme events. This pilot project in the village of Thecho tackles everyday water scarcity, through storage, treatment, and community-led distribution as well as acts as an emergency back up in the times of disaster with access to water, power and emergency supplies.

PrepHub Nepal has won MIT IDEAS Global Challenge 2016, Lafarge-Holcim Foundation Acknowledgment Prize 2017 and was a finalist for UN RISK Award, 2017.

PrepHub Nepal project is supported by MIT TATA center for Technology and Design , Lafarge-Holcim Foundation and locally implemented by Lumanti Support Group for Shelter.

Accelerating Innovation: DesignX at MITArchA

October 23rd, 2018

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Larisa Ovalles, Research Associate, presenting PrepHubs at the MITArchA event

Gilad Rosenzweig MCP ’13, Executive Director of DesignX, Larisa Ovalles SM 16’ Research Associate at the Urban Risk Lab, Stephanie Lee M.Arch ’19 from Spaceus and Arlene Ducao SM ’13 from Multimer.

Larisa Ovalles presented the PrepHub project as part of DesignX, a platform for accelerating innovation in design, urbanism, and the built environment at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning. It works to develop and launch new products, services, and technologies by combining MIT’s creative energy with the talents and experience of industry and the public sector.

Executive Director of DesignX, Gilad Rosenzweig, started the talk and was followed by presentations by other designX ventures, including Spaceus and Multimer.

PrepHubs are a new kind of public space infrastructure, designed to embed community scale preparedness into cities.

The event was hosted by ARUP and organized by the MITArchA and MIT Club of New York. For more information about the event, visit the MITArchA page.