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The BIG U: Danish-Designed Flood Management Solution to Protect Manhattan
4 July 2014
We have a 100-year flood every two years now”, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The devastating effects of Sandy in 2012 put the resiliency of New York into serious question and prompted the city to undertake a major evaluation of how to climate proof itself.
To ensure that it does not happen again, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Presidential Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force initiated Rebuild by Design, purposed to connect the world’s most talented researchers and designers with the Sandy-affected area’s active businesses, policymakers and local groups to better understand how to redevelop their communities in environmentally- and economically-healthier ways and to be better prepared.
Integrated water management: The Big U
Based on this, Rebuild by Design initiated a year-long competition to receive to solutions that would offer a variety of safeguards to protect the low-lying coastal areas, such as Manhattan, that were devastated by catastrophic flooding.
The ‘Big U’ from Danish architecture company BIG has been announced as one of the six winners to protect the New York City region, with assistance from Danish COWI. Devised as an 8-mile long system of dikes placed around the tip of Lower Manhattan, the solution not only shields the city against floods and stormwater, it also provide social and environmental benefits to the community, and fosters and improved public realm:
“The Big U is an example of what we call social infrastructure. The newly erected city park in New York, the High Line, demonstrates how a closed down railway section can be transformed into a new urban space and landscape. The coastal area in Lower Manhattan will not only be secure but also more available and inviting for New York’s citizens," explains Bjarke Ingels in a press release about the victory.
Source: Rebuild by Design / Bjarke Ingels Group
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