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Virginia Tech

Weathering the Storm: Hurricane Resiliency in the Florida Keys

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

How can architects let their buildings interact with the water while protecting occupants from the potential danger? The two intents are very different and often compete with one, either protection or recreation, as the primary program in one project. Water draws people, everyone likes being near water. People visit waterfalls and the beach just to experience moving water, they go boating and kayaking just to be on the water. Water views and access are considered an amenity that drive up prices in buildings. Whenever possible architects should strive to connect their architecture and water and to let occupants interact with the water. However, water can be dangerous too. Overfull rivers wash away roads and cars. Floods inundate entire cities, and hurricanes devastate huge islands. In addition to catastrophic damage sea levels are rising around the world causing damage and rendering low lying land uninhabitable. Architects must protect against these dangers. If designed correctly buildings can offer shelter from storms and resist rising water of all kinds. For my thesis I decided to study how to reconcile these two conflicting approaches to water.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Begley, David Douglas
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Breitschmid, Markus
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Heavers, Nathan
  • Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C.

Subjects

dc:subject × 8

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:16453
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/84340

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Begley, David Douglas. Weathering the Storm: Hurricane Resiliency in the Florida Keys. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84340