2024 | What If We Get It Right?

Envisioning Sustainable Futures for the Barrier Islands

Ulrike Heine | Amy Trick | Rashad Dorsey

Introduction

Architecture on the Southeastern barrier islands can no longer be understood as a question of isolated objects, aesthetic preferences, or economic development alone. The contemporary condition of these territories demands a different intellectual and ethical framework—one that recognizes the barrier island as a fragile environmental apparatus, a contested cultural landscape, and a site where the effects of climate change, extractive tourism, and spatial inequity converge with particular intensity. This studio begins from the premise that architecture must operate critically within these entanglements. Stretching from North Carolina to Florida, the barrier islands of the American Southeast have historically functioned as dynamic ecological systems. Formed through shifting deposits of sand, tidal flows, and coastal weather patterns, they exist in a constant state of transformation. Their instability is not a defect but their defining condition. These landscapes absorb storm surges, protect inland ecologies, and sustain unique biodiverse habitats. At the same time, they are territories deeply marked by histories of settlement, labor, displacement, and resistance. During the Jim Crow era, Gullah-Geechee communities established self-sustaining cultural and agricultural practices on many of these islands, cultivating ways of inhabiting the landscape that were rooted in reciprocity, stewardship, and collective survival. The rise of tourism infrastructure during the twentieth century radically altered this relationship between culture, ecology, and occupation. Bridges, roads, resorts, gated communities, and speculative real estate development transformed the islands into commodities within a broader economy of leisure and consumption. What emerged was not simply a new architectural typology, but an entire spatial regime organized around  extraction: extraction of land value, extraction of ecological resources, and extraction of cultural identity. In many cases, the same communities that had sustained these territories were displaced inland through gentrification, unequal property practices, and environmental vulnerability. Climate change has accelerated these contradictions. Sea-level rise, coastal erosion, intensified storms, and tidal flooding now expose the unsustainable logic upon which much contemporary coastal development has been built. This studio positions architecture not as a mechanism for preserving an idealized image of the coast, but as a mode of inquiry into new forms of coexistence between environmental systems and human occupation. The work developed here asks how architecture might move beyond the paradigms of consumption and permanence that have historically defined tourist development. Instead, the studio explores adaptive, regenerative, and community-centered forms of inhabitation capable of responding to ecological uncertainty while reinforcing cultural continuity and social equity. Central to this investigation is the understanding that sustainability cannot be reduced to technical performance alone. Environmental resilience is inseparable from questions of justice, access, and cultural survival. The studio therefore approaches design as both a spatial and political act. It examines how architecture can support local agency, sustain food production and self-sufficiency, foster collective stewardship of land and water, and create alternative economies that resist extractive tourism models. The goal is not to imagine the barrier island as untouched wilderness nor as a fully urbanized resort landscape, but rather as a negotiated territory where ecological systems and human communities remain interdependent. The studio operates simultaneously as a research platform and a form of public engagement. Through collaboration with coastal communities in South Carolina and Georgia, the work seeks to produce knowledge that extends beyond the academic setting. Design proposals, exhibitions, publications, and community workshops become tools for dialogue, education, and advocacy. In this sense, the studio understands representation not merely as a means of illustrating architecture, but as a method of constructing environmental awareness and collective imagination. At its core, this studio asks students to reconsider the role of architecture in an era defined by climatic instability and social fragmentation. Rather than designing against nature, students are asked to work with dynamic environmental processes. Rather than reproducing the spatial logic of tourism-driven consumption, they are asked to envision models of occupation grounded in reciprocity, adaptability, and care. The barrier island becomes both site and teacher: a landscape whose instability reveals the limitations of conventional architectural thinking while opening possibilities for new forms of practice. In confronting the intertwined realities of climate change, displacement, and ecological degradation, this studio advances architecture as a critical cultural practice—one capable of mediating between environmental systems, historical memory, and future modes of collective life. The work undertaken here is therefore not simply about designing buildings on the coast. It is about imagining how architecture can participate in the repair of relationships between people, land, culture, and climate. Based on the framework and objectives established in the LS3P Foundation Grant Proposal, the studio positions itself within a broader commitment to environmental responsibility, social equity, and the cultivation of resilient coastal futures..

THE PROJECT

Communities along the Southeastern coast of the United States are suffering the worst effects of climate change with the increased intensity of storms and hurricanes, the worsening of flood surges and tidal flooding, and, in the near future, the effects of sea level rise. The uncontrolled tourist development these communities have experienced during the last decades has worsened these conditions while displacing most of their underserved populations away from the shoreline. The objective of this design studio is to explore socially and environmentally sustainable alternatives to tourist developments in sites among the East Coast Barrier Islands, which directly engage the coastal communities as stewards of the environment. Barrier islands, a particularly valuable and delicate coastal landform, stretch along the Southeast Coast of the US, from North Carolina to Florida. On the one hand, these islands formed by “constantly changing deposits of sand” are critical for the protection of coastal ecosystems and communities, as they absorb the waves’ energy before hitting the coast, thus reducing both storm surge and flooding. On the other, they are unique landscapes with rich, endemic, biodiverse ecosystems that are also threatened by climate change. Importantly, during the Jim Crow era, it was on these islands that the self-sustaining Gullah-Geechee communities found a safe haven. Once the first bridges were built in the 1950s, a massive invasion of the tourist industry took over the islands, bringing new infrastructure projects, higher ship traffic, travel-oriented constructions at various scales, from vacation homes to hotels of all sizes, and gated all-inclusive resorts. The short and long-term consequences have impacted both the ecosystems of the islands, and the communities inhabiting them, leading to the commodification of these coastal landscapes. The challenges that the islands face are broad but can largely be described as falling within three categories.

1. Social and cultural challenges.

As tourist developments spread, degrading the very landscapes they were attracted to, they systematically displaced low-income groups from the most natural areas of the islands to the mainland. Ironically, though not unexpectedly, the African-American communities originally established on the islands during the 19th and 20th century were the first ones to be removed through unregulated real estate practices, gentrification, and abuse of property rights.

2. Climate challenges.

Once air-conditioning technologies became easily available, the hot and humid islands turned into desirable ocean-side property. Unlike the low-impact Gullah-Geechee villages, the alterations of the landscape brought by the tourist industry led to sand erosion, rapid sea level rises, and extreme weather events, thus causing a progressive reduction of barrier islands’ surface and, in a downward spiral, reducing the protections they provide for the mainland.

3. Sustenance challenges.

Thriving on consumption, tourism gradually erases self-sustained practices of land cultivation and production, which results in food deserts – an unfortunate paradox in an area where the natural climate, along with modern agricultural practices, would allow for sustainable farming. Through rigorous contextual research and subsequent design, this studio will address these complex and intertwined challenges that are threatening not only the specific cultures and communities of the barrier islands but also the existence of the barrier islands themselves. Students will work in teams on design projects at one of five sites within the Barrier Islands: Hatteras Island, North Carolina; Ocracoke Island, North Carolina; McClellanville, South Carolina; St. Helena Island, South Carolina; and Fripp Island, South Carolina. Based on the site analysis and contextual research, student teams will select a specific challenge to address programmatically. These programs will be used for the development of architectural solutions that carefully respond to the local conditions of climate, landscape, economy, society, and culture and thoughtfully consider the efficient use of resources and future resilience and adaptability.