Mother nature constantly threatens us with natural disasters and continually reminds us that floods, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis (to name just a few) are potential and ever present threats to both our survival and that of our built environment. One of the fundamental aspects of architecture is its assumed capacity to shelter and protect. How can we design structures that not only survive but surpass (or perhaps bypass) these kinds of extreme natural disasters? In the context of this course, we explore strategies, technologies, and approaches that speculate precisely on how we might potentially negotiate such extreme events. Our explorations aim to strike a marriage between architecture, structure, technology, and the demands imposed by these extreme natural phenomena. We envision fluid programs, evolving through time, that address and respond to disaster and that critically question sustainability.

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